Ray from England shares his MS, Fibromyalgia and LDN Story

Linda Elsegood: Hi I would like to introduce Ray from England who takes LDN for Multiple Sclerosis and Fibromyalgia. Thank you for joining me Ray.

Ray: Thanks very much.

Linda Elsegood: Could you tell me when you first started to notice symptoms, which led to your diagnosis?

Ray: I collapsed in 2009 but about three years while I was working before I got diagnosed with Ms, I noticed always feeling very tired after work and would sleep in the evenings.

And my Ms Smith said there are probably developed Ms and Fibromyalgia while I was working, but when I collapsed in 2009 that was a definite diagnosis, and that's when my illness eventually kicked in.

Linda Elsegood: What old were you then?

Ray: 41

Linda Elsegood: And how that does impact on your life?

Ray:  Well, I'm lucky that I worked for Honda and I've got a very good pension, and I've got health insurance on my pension, so financially I am ok. I claim some benefits.

It's been just over two years now for me, and I haven't really noticed a great deal apart from the fact that I would try to do things when I'm feeling good and then it would, the fatigue and chronic pain would hit me a day or two days later, and I can deal for a couple of days a week, two weeks. It's just a very unpredictable disease Ms and the fibromyalgia with fatigue and chronic pain as well, so it impacts on my life quite a lot at the moment. And I went to the MS centre today because the lord mayor was there and I had to go on an exercise bike, and have my picture taken and I couldn't even lift my leg into the stirrup when I was sat down.

And that was a real eye-opener for me today that I was sat in a chair, and you got these pedals in front of you. It's like an adopted bike and I couldn't lift my legs while sitting down. I mean, I consider myself to be generally,  a lot more able-bodied than most of the people in there because I can walk around and I thought I could bend my legs really well in a seated position trying to get my legs into the bike today.

Linda Elsegood: Well before you heard about LDN, what were your symptoms like at that time?

Ray: I was really ill. I felt like I had really bad flu symptoms feeling generally yucky every day. I was definitely feeling really unwell.

Linda Elsegood: What about pain? What was your pain like at that time?

Ray: That was really bad as well. I've tried several types of medication from my Ms nurse and then eventually got on to Pregabalin which helps neurological pain, and that helped me a lot, but I still had the yucky illness feeling most of the time.

Linda Elsegood: So if you went to score your quality of life on a scale of one to 10,  10 being the best before you started LDN, what would it mean?

Ray: Before I started LDN I would say it was a 4. Now I would say it's about 8 or 9.

Linda Elsegood: That's fantastic! That's really good. So how did you hear about LDN?

Ray: My brother's mother-in-law has got fibromyalgia really bad. She got it for 20 years, and she said to me: " Why don't you try LDN?" I said: " Well, what is that?"

And she gave me the website address, and my doctor was willing to give me a prescription every month and to get my medications and Dickinson's pharmacy in Scotland. The last year, it's being paid for on NHS. So I didn't pay for anything.

Linda Elsegood: That's really good. So when you first started, did you notice any side effects?

Ray: No, I didn't. Not at all.

Linda Elsegood: All right. And how long do you think it took before LDN started to work for you?

Ray: Probably about six months.

Linda Elsegood:  And what did you notice?

Ray: I mean with fibromyalgia, every morning you wake up, you still feel very fatigued.

But that's also the same in Ms Still the case now, but I know that after about two hours, I'm okay and I haven't got this yucky flu-like symptom. I haven't got any of that anymore.

Linda Elsegood: What would you say to other people in your situation who were thinking of trying LDN?

Ray: I would say: " Do it!"  because we did notes on LDN.  It stimulates the body's endorphins naturally to make you feel a little bit better. It just makes endorphins in your body and I would say to people: "Try it because it's really good. "

Linda Elsegood: Well, thank you very much. Is there anything else you'd like to add before we go?

Ray: Not really. That's all I can say is anybody out there to speak to their doctor, go to the website, print off all the information, show to the doctor and try and get a prescription from your doctor. And then get the LDN, basically.

Linda Elsegood: Thank you for your input.

Any questions or comments you may have, please Contact Us.  I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for joining us today. We really appreciated your company. Until next time, stay safe and keep well.