Mercedes, Dr. Vincent, Nurse Liz and Donna

It’s the Macaluso Infusion Center’s

 10th Anniversary!

For anyone who has multiple sclerosis and currently takes Tysabri, I’m proud to announce that the Macaluso Infusion Center is celebrating its 10^th anniversary having done over 5,700 infusions! Personally, I have been on Tysabri for 10 years (which was one of the reasons I started the center) and I really enjoy being able to get my medication while other MSers are around. Our infusion room has five comfy infusion chairs along with a television and free WIFI. This generates a relaxed, family-like environment.

And we are like a family. When you arrive, you will be greeted by either Donna or Mercedes. These are the two people who have been working with my MS patients since we opened ten years ago. After being registered, you can wait in our homey waiting room where you can read, talk or watch TV.  Once your infusion chair is ready, Donna or Mercedes will check your vital signs and then hand you over to our outstanding infusion nurse, Elizabeth. Liz has extensive experience as a nurse and as an infusion specialist. Her calm and happy demeanor makes her the type of person you can trust which can help you relax while getting your medication.

After the infusion has started, some patients enjoy talking with other MSers, others prefer to read, write or get their work done and some just put on a pair of headphones and kick back for the hour that the medication is infused.

Some of the people who get their infusions done here like knowing that we only infuse people who get intravenous medication for multiple sclerosis. Other people like the smaller scale, comfortable environment that we provide.

Among the MS patients who previously had their infusions done at larger, often hospital-based infusion centers, they were treated not so much as people but more like “the next one in line.” All the patients I have spoken with are unanimous in saying that our infusion center is the best experience that they have had.

So if you are looking for a nice place to get your Tysabri infusion done, you can come and visit our center during our business hours (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday – 9am-5pm, Wednesday – noon to 8pm.) or give us a call (516-498-2300) and we can chat.

Hope to see you soon!

Dr. Vincent

Macaluso Medical Infusion Room

The waiting room at Macaluso Medical.

How blessed am I?

How blessed am I?

Well I’ll tell you.

I’m incredibly blessed to have MS and a medical degree.

I’m blessed because I get to celebrate twice when a new medication comes out for MS. When I celebrate as a patient, I feel like, “Cool, another medication that might help to slow down my MS even better than my current medication does!”

Plus, and here is the really great part, as a physician I feel like, “Excellent, now I have another weapon to use to help slow down MS for my patients!”

So, it’s like, “Yeah for me” PLUS “Yeah for the 300 other MSers that I take care of.”

That means that I get to feel “Yeah-good” 300 times more potently than if only I had the MS.

How blessed am I?

To go one step further, I calculated the chance that I could become a doctor AND get MS.

First, the chance that I could become a doctor:

583,629 (number of MDs in 1994 when I graduated med school)

249,600,000 (US population in 1994 when I graduated med school)

= 0.002 chance that I become a doctor

Second, the chance that I could get MS:

400,000 (MS population in the US)

324,238,436 (US population)

= 0.0012 chance that I get MS

Therefore…

The chance of getting both MS and a medical degree:

0.002 × 0.0012 = 0.0000024

Now change the decimal to a fraction:

0.0000024 = 24/10,000,000

Now simplify the fraction:

24/10,000,000 = 1/416,667

To give you an idea of what a 1/416,667 chance is, here are a few things with similar odds:

• Death by Tsunami
• Asteroid hitting the earth
• Yearly chance of getting hit by lightening

How blessed am I?

I have a great wife, daughter and son who I care for and who care for me.

How blessed am I?

I have a roof over my head and air conditioning inside.

How blessed am I?

I have lawn mower that starts after two or three pulls most of the time.

How could I be more blessed?

If all mathematicians / statisticians who read this don’t give me crap for the way I calculated the chance that I got both MS and a medical degree.

Blessings to you!