This time last year, life was pretty rosy in our garden! Nice home, I had a good, well-paid job, my wife was considering moving her successful nail business from home to the High Street and, more importantly, we all had our health. Life was good.
Then, in the Spring, it all started! My father had a heart attack. He was 77 at the time, but never smoked, rarely drank, had a healthy diet and was always fit & healthy. So, it came as a great shock to us all. Fortunately, he survived and has made an excellent recovery.
However, in July, my wonderful wife, Suzanne, was admitted to hospital suffering from numbness in her legs. After extensive tests and a distressingly lengthy MRI, she was diagnosed with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. If my father's heart attack was a shock, then this was a sledgehammer blow and something that is very hard to come to terms with. The moment when I walked into the hospital just after the consultant had told her and she relayed the news to me, is something that will live with me forever.
Suzanne, however, was determined to continue with the family holiday we had booked for October. We went to Florida and had a fabulous time. The sunshine really agreed with Suzanne and none of us wanted to come back home.
But, that was not the end of the bad news. At the beginning of December, I was told that my contract, which had been running for 14 years, would not be renewed at the end of December. Happy Xmas me! For the first time in almost 30 years I was to be out of work. So, a bad end to a really bad year!
But, I am a naturally optimistic person and honestly believe that things will get better for us. Suzanne has recently relapsed again and, with the spare time I now have, between us we have been researching MS and possible treatments. Suzanne decided that she could now face looking deeper, her latest relapse tempting her to reach out for the beta interferons, something that she had been avoiding due to the potential risks. This despite the persistence of the MS nurses, who are very attentive until you turn your back on the conventional drugs, at which point, they mysteriously vanish! This is because most are paid, not by the NHS, but by the drug companies and, as such, are just glorified salespeople! Anyway, the research steered her in the direction of LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone) and the amazing benefits it has brought to many sufferers of MS, amongst many other autoimmune conditions. You can read more about this on Suzanne's blog. Why is this drug not widely known and prescribed at the first diagnosis? Because the drug companies do not want us to hear aboout it because it is cheap and does not make them any money. I have a real bee in my bonnet about the influence and power that the pharmaceutical companies have. They would rather patients take drugs that maximize their profits, many of which cause side effects that may be treated by more of their expensive drugs! And I can only assume that senior MPs and health executives are receiving back-handers, otherwise why would they not adopt this drug in favour of the vastly more expensive beta-interferons? What is the world coming to when money is deemed more important than the health of millions?
To highlight this, Suzanne's GP, a highly experienced doctor with many MS patients, had never heard of LDN. Fortunately, he is open-minded and, after reading the documentation we had prepared for him, was prepared to prescribe LDN, albeit via a private prescription to avoid the rediculous NHS red-tape. Suzanne should be receiving the LDN sometime this week and we are very confident that this will help her condition enormously.
There are other very exciting research projects underway, including CCSVI and, more long-term, stem-cell therapy. All we need is for the government to take off their greed-clouded spectacles and put their backing behind really helping people.
So, all in all, a bad time, but I cannot even begin to think about feeling sorry for myself. I will always be here to help my wife in any way I can, and I will always be in awe of the strength and courage that Suzanne has shown and her determination to beat this.
The future is positive, both on the health and job front, so here's hoping for a better year for all.
