I have been living with pml for 18 months now,the progression was rapid and I lost my ability to walk,talk,swallow,write and was virtually bedridden.I entered a brain injury rehabilitation program and have made progress,I walk with a walker,follow an execise regime,attend speech therapy,do aquatic balance ecxersises,my last mri revealed the brain lesion is shrinking,my cd4 count is below 200 and my viral load has been undetectable since Sept.04,I have regained close to 100 well needed pounds,can swallow normal and generally try to have a good mind frame,is tthere any success stories of improvement you know of?I would love to be able to walk unassisted one day or at least now if I'm being unrealistic

Thank you for your post.

PML is a complication of very advanced AIDS-- in the past, a marker of a time when death was not too far away. With current treatments, persons diagnosed with PML can actually expect long-term survival and improvement in the neurological deficiencies associated with the disease. How much improvement, I think, depends a lot on individual circumstances, and well, a certain degree of good luck.

To this end, I'm very happy to hear of your improvement-- I hope that you'll continue to improve with time. As for your question, I have a number of very memorable patients who have made complete recoveries from PML, for some this improvement was rather rapid (once on HAART), for others, the improvement took a long time.

Either way, keep up the good and difficult work with adherence to your HAART medications and physical therapy.

Best wishes for health, BY