Kelly Ayers is no stranger to traveling for medical treatments.
Ayers, who suffers from relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS), requires a medicine that is administered intravenously once a month to manage her condition.
For five years, Ayers made a monthly trek from her home in northwest Georgia into Atlanta to receive her infusion. It took two and a half hours — each way — and her husband took off work to drive her. 
“Getting on the interstate and driving to Atlanta by myself was just out of the question with my health condition,” said Ayers.
When Ayers found out about The Tanner MS Center at Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica, everything changed for the better. Villa Rica was far more convenient for Ayers and her husband, who live in Summerville, Georgia, with their daughter.
“Now I can drive myself because it’s just country roads and I don’t have to be on the interstate like we did going to Atlanta,” said Ayers. Now, her husband doesn’t get taken away from his job as a loan officer at a local bank.
The infusion center at Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica serves patients with a wide variety of conditions who need medicines intravenously. The center was designed for the comfort and safety of patients, with big comfy chairs that are easy to climb in and out of, non-slip floors and doors that open with the wave of a hand.
The center has a team of nurses who place the IV line for each patient, administer the medicines intravenously and monitor patients during and after their infusions. Doctors also supervise the center.
Ayers said the nurses are excellent at conveying medical information in a way that’s easy to understand.
“They explain how everything works with the medicine and how to watch for any side effects,” Ayers said.
The nurses go out of their way to make sure patients have a positive experience receiving their infusions, which take an hour for some medicines and several hours for others.
“You feel like a little kid the way the nurses take such good care of you,” she said. “They bring you blankets, pillows and something to eat to make sure you are as comfortable as possible.”
The infusion center, which was one of the first in Georgia to provide Tysabri infusions, often has other MS patients who are receiving their infusions at the same time.
“It’s really nice to talk to other patients,” Ayers said. “It helps to know that you are not all by yourself dealing with this.”
The medicine, Tysabri, helps manage Ayers’ MS symptoms, which include severe fatigue and numbness in her hands. The disease has made it impossible to do things she used to do.
“I was a bank teller for eight years,” she said. “But I can’t even count money anymore.”
Multiple sclerosis is a disease where the body’s immune system attacks the protective covering of nerves. This nerve damage disrupts the brain’s communication with the rest of the body. It can cause pain, tingling sensations, fatigue, impaired coordination, vision loss and more.
Ayers, 38, was diagnosed soon after her daughter was born 14 years ago. She has been on several different treatments over the years to control her symptoms and prevent the disease from progressing.
Before starting Tysabri, she used a treatment called Rebif that required an injection every other day at home.
“I hated it, not so much because of the shot but because the medicine would really burn once it was in your body,” she explained. “My husband would do it for me and I’d always want to delay it, even though I knew I couldn’t.”
She eventually built up antibodies to Rebif and her doctor told her she needed to switch to a monthly infusion of Tysabri. She has tolerated the medication well.
“It’s been so much better for my health and so much easier for my lifestyle to only worry about it once a month instead of every other day,” Ayers said. “It gives me a little boost of energy that lasts almost through the end of the month, and then I can feel it when it’s starting to wear off.”
Ayers said she is grateful to have a medicine that helps control her MS because she has met patients who struggled for a decade just to get a diagnosis and others who had difficulty finding treatments that worked for them.
“I feel lucky that I was able to find a treatment that works in a place that is convenient for me,” Ayers said. “Sometimes it takes several tries and some research to really get things to work out.”
Even with the monthly infusions, she suffers from severe fatigue that limits her lifestyle. She loves being a mom and is able to drive her daughter to school and pick her up each day. She likes reading her Bible and finds joy being involved in her church.
“I’m not one to sit around and say, ‘Oh, poor me,’” Ayers said. “You just can’t let it take over your life; you have got to keep living your life as best you can.”