Tovaxin User's First Hand Account

Tovaxin is an autologous vaccine. That means they take some of my blood, cull out the T-cells and introduce them to human myelin. Those that react to the myelin are culled out and replicated. Once there are enough for the vaccine, about 45 million cells, the T-cells are irradiated so that they are still alive, but cannot reproduce. That is the vaccine.

The vaccine is injected just under my skin, you can see some pictures at http://www.TimsWellness.com, and the body treats these T-cells as a foreign invader and makes antibodies to eliminate only these specific T-cells. These antibodies not only take out the T-cells from the vaccine, but also eliminate all of that same type of T-cell throughout my body.

The body produces 2 to 3 trillion red blood cells per day. I am not sure how many T-cells are produced per day, but if 1 or 2 per million are troublemakers, that means there are hundreds of millions of myelin reactive T-cells floating around in the blood stream of someone with MS. A flare is when the body produces too many of these bad T-cells. No one is sure why this happens, but it may be caused by an upper respiratory infection, or a cold sore, or some other immune response that triggers the body to produce T-cells that mistake myelin as something bad.

By eliminating these 1 or 2 per 1 million T-cells does not compromise the immune system, but it does eliminate all of the T-cells that destroy the myelin. No bad T-cells means no more attacks. Anyone on Tovaxin will need to get a booster twice a year to keep the antibodies at a level sufficient to continue to eliminate all of the myelin reactive T-cells as they are produced. This is just like a flu shot.

I think about 30 to 40% of the damage that was done by the attacks has been reversed. The body will repair itself, as long as the attacks stop. I am helping myself by doing a lot of exercising and activities that improve my small motor skills.

I am doing many things that I was no longer able to do. When I started the vaccine, my parent's were cutting my food and feeding it to me. I am able to cut my own food, and today, I peeled some shrimp. Realizing that I can again do something as insignificant as peel a shrimp really makes me feel good. I used to wonder why people got so excited to see a disabled family member regain some little ability, now I understand, and I understand why my family is trilled at even my smallest improvement.