It’s the end of September now and we have arrived for the next neuromuscular appointment. The doctor begins the appointment by giving his report to my daughter on the MRI which was normal and the last batch of blood work, also normal. He tests her arm and leg strength and notices a definite improvement. Since her muscles (mostly in her arms, her legs won’t do a thing)are responding to the prednisone, he feels strongly that it’s a treatable inflammatory myopathy now, rather than a thyroid problem, but he still doesn’t know what type of myopathy it is; another muscle biopsy will be performed next week. He wants her to continue the prednisone, possibly for several more months, and to start taking calcium with vitamin D. Next he plans to prescribe a non-steroid immunosuppressant drug called imuran after the biopsy is done. Our understanding was that imuran will eventually replace the prednisone because it has fewer long term side effects. He also said that if the biopsy confirmed an inflammatory myopathy, he would do another treatment called Intravenous Immunoglobulin. IVig is a infusion of antibodies that are obtained from thousands of donors. The foreign antibodies confuse the immune system, reduce the body’s production of antibodies and temporarily stop the attack on the muscles. This would be an inpatient treatment and my daughter would be there three to five days, this being nothing she wants anything to do with. He orders yet another round of blood tests, to serve as the baseline before she starts the new medicine. My daughter advises the doctor that we have finally heard from the Endocrine department, and they’ve given us an appointment in March ’09. The doctor says to keep the appointment for now, but he now doubts that it is thyroid related.