JJ I am truly sorry to hear of your wife's condition and I know how confusing and frightening this for the both of you. She sounds like a true SF wife and my best to her Brother.
The other reason that I am replying here is to say that, as a medical research scientist, I reject the notion that there is such a thing as an "autoimmune disease". There are only diseases of unknown etiology that induce an "autoimmune response". The problem is that we tend to diagnose and (unfortunately) treat diseases as they manifest themselves, i.e. the symptoms of disease. Well, we have to call them something don't we? Unfortunately, this leads to symptomatic treatments.
Recent research is suggesting that these so called "autoimmune diseases", like Lupus for instance, are really the result of chronic infection or other injurious agents that results in dysregulation of the intracellular inflammasome signalling platform. One of the recommendations I made to my niece (suffering from Lupus) was take 4000 IU Vit D daily. Her symptoms subsided almost immediately.
I just returned from a conference on the inflammasome mechanism and disease and one of the case studies involved a related "autoimmune" neurological disorder and the treatment with Vit D. Again profound symptomatic relief.
I would ask the Docs here to opine as to the benefits they think your wife may have from Vit D's anti-inflammatory effects. If they do not see any contraindications, then she probably should try it.
As of yet, there is no cure, but trust me Brother, we are working on this and if there is a breakthrough I will be posting that here and sending you a PM.
Hang in there JJ our thoughts, prayers, and hard work are with you.
