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Linda Elsegood: I'd like to introduce Bill from Ireland who has multiple sclerosis. Welcome, Bill could you tell me when you first started noticing your MS symptoms?
Bill: Well, going a way back, I had optic neuritis in my eye, that was when I was a student, uh, in the early seventies, but those days, the diagnosis wasn't so easy. But then it was in 1990 when I have a final diagnosis of MS remitting and relapsing.
Linda Elsegood: Yes. What were your symptoms at that time?
Bill: At that time severe fatigue, weakness and slight slurring of speech, which my speech still isn't perfect. It's still a bit affected.
Linda Elsegood: And how did that affect you being diagnosed, having that MS label? Bill: Well, I knew all along in a way because I mean, the indication from the early days was I had MS so the confirmation in 1990 didn't really affect me too much, but I was really conscious of the fatigue, especially, it was getting worse and worse, and impacting on my job, I was very concerned as to how long I would be able to continue.
Linda Elsegood: How did you learn about LDN?
Bill: Well, I was attending a national health consultant and my GP for years, I'm sure they were tired of hearing me complain about fatigue and asking what might be done about it or that could anything be prescribed. I was getting no real assistance and I decided, really out of exasperation, to make a private appointment with another consultant. He was much easier to talk to, obviously more time to talk to me because it was a private appointment, and it was he who said, after we had chatted for a while, it was he who said, Oh, I thought maybe you were here looking for LDN as I stared back at him a minute in amazement because I've never heard of LDN. I asked him more about it, and he said, well, this, this has worked for some people. Um, coincidentally, a good friend of mine, just at the same time, asked me about, had I come across LDN, the trend is a retired vet and it was actually his GP who's mentioned, I think a sister-in-law has MS and the friends GP who mentioned LDN was prescribing it to some of his MS patients. So, naturally, I, when I returned home from the consultant, I got on the computer and found out a lot more about LDN.
Linda Elsegood: So when did you start LDN?
Bill: I started at the beginning of December last year.
Linda Elsegood: Did you notice any initial side effects?
Bill: Yes. I was waking up, to some extent still am, having taken the LDN at 10:00 PM, I was waking up at 3:00 AM roughly. I would stay awake for an hour or so and then get back to sleep. But for me, that was a small price to pay, because the very day after I took the first tablets of LDN, and I know this sounds a bit extreme but the very day after I first took LDN the severe fatigue that I was feeling every morning when I woke up was no longer there. I still had a certain amount of tiredness, but it's not the fatigue that I've been having for years.
Linda Elsegood: That's good.
Bill: I was really astonished to be quite honest with you.
Linda Elsegood: So what impact would you say LDN has had on your life overall?
Bill: Well, it's given me my life back. I'm able to do things that I’d long since ceased doing, yeah, I appreciate the MS I had on it and still have, it's at the lower end of the scale, but it was preventing me from going out in the evenings. I was relying entirely on my wife to do everything around the house and then the garden. It's made a huge difference to me.
Linda Elsegood: What would you say to other people with MS that are thinking of trying LDN?
Bill: Well, I would say, what have you to lose. You're probably not getting anything that's really, in the way of medication that’s life-changing. If you try LDN, my understanding is that the side effects are minor. They certainly were in my case, my understanding is no suggestion of serious side effects, what have you to lose. And I couldn't endorse it strongly enough.
Linda Elsegood: Well, that's wonderful. Before we finish, is there anything else you'd like to add?
Bill: No, I think that's, well. I would just say that when I first learned of LDN, I was astonished, and I continue to be astonished at the lack of information that is available. to, not just MS patients, but doctors.
My own GP had never heard of it and was very sceptical initially, but was won over reasonably quickly. Perhaps the consultant, perhaps he had a word with the consultant, I don't know, but it really astounded me. And naturally, I've spoken to two friends who have MS and some of those I know are taking up LDN.
One friend in particular who unfortunately is in a wheelchair rang me recently and said he had only been on LDN for a week. Perhaps hadn't been any great changes, but his wife had remarked that he seemed a great deal sharper and he couldn't be more grateful to me for mentioning it. It just seems an absolute disgrace that this reasonably inexpensive drug is not being made more widely available.
Linda Elsegood: Yeah. Well, thank you, Bill, very much for sharing your story with us.
I really do appreciate it.
Bill: You're very welcome.