Hello friends --My kids left and now my sister (and her dog, Larry) are here visiting from Minnesota.  Nothing better than having family and friends - and noise - in my house.  Couple that with some beautiful spring-like weather and I'm a happy gal!!So - what's happening in the world of MS, you ask??  I've got your answer:1.  If you didn't know - let me introduce you to an ebook that I co-wrote with my dear friend Erin Glace - Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist extraordinaire. It's solid advice for what YOU can do to help yourself with bowel and bladder issues in MS.  Erin wrote the smart-thinky parts and I wrote the smart-assy parts! Good advice from her - good giggles from me (hopefully). Interested?? Check it out here (click the book cover):2.  Did you feel it?? That rumble of excitement for a brand new MS treatment? It's called Briumvi and it's given in hour-long infusions every six months. That's it - 1 hour every 6 months. Really interesting.  AND - it has the lowest list price for any branded MS therapy currently available for MS patients, costing about $59,000 per year. For comparison, Ocrevus, which is the least expensive after Briumvi, has a list price of about $75,000 each year.  Even more exciting - the company is offering copay assistance for patients on all forms of commercial insurance. For patients with Medicare or Medicaid — or those who do not have any health insurance, the support program can offer access to Briumvi for free.  WHAT!?!?!  TG aims to make Briumvi accessible to patients3.  Seems they need to step up their MS diagnostic criteria for kids - or rather, forget the criteria for adults and develop criteria specific to kids.  MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS OFTEN GOES UNDETECTED IN AT-RISK KIDS4. U.S. FUMS'ers -  Are you familiar with ABLE Savings Accounts?? ABLE is short for Achieving a Better Life Experience Act, which was enacted in 2014. The ABLE Act created savings accounts that allow Americans with disabilities to save money without affecting their need-based programs, such as Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps). With these programs, people are typically limited to $2,000 in savings and other liquid assets in order to qualify. However, any money saved in an ABLE account does not count toward that number. They adjusted the age to be more reflective of typical age of diagnosis for MS:  More People with Multiple Sclerosis to Qualify for ABLE Savings Accounts5.  This title says it all: Study Links Early Progression Independent of Relapse Activity to Worse Long-term Disability in Patients with MS6.  How did your first MRI look? How long ago was that? Why does that matter? Here's why: Early MS MRI markers linked to worse disability in 10 years timeThat's all folks. Hope you found something enlightening in this little newsletter o'mine. Do me a favor, please.  Share your ❤️ the the FUMS 6-Pack by posting about it on your socials or in MS support groups, etc. Send your MS'y friends to sign up to get the 6-Pack in their inbox right here: www.FUMSnow.com/6pack.  Thank you.Cheers -- Kathy#FUMS 

Sometimes it helps the stress, just to say "F-U-M-S"