Re: Vicki Finlayson

[Guest guest]

I couldnt pick up the article...does anyone have a different link?Destiny <destinyellen@...> wrote: THANK YOU VICKI!!! Get amazing travel prices for air and hotel in one click on FareChase

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[Guest guest]

>

> I couldnt pick up the article...does anyone have a different link?

>

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Lake of the Pines resident Vicki Finlayson has MS and has found one

little pill that brings her relief: Low Dose Naltrexone.

Lake of the Pines woman finds pain relief from MS with experimental

drug

Vicki Finlayson has recently started approaching strangers in

wheelchairs at Chinese restaurants, grocery stores, or anywhere else

to ask them if they have multiple sclerosis - a terrifying

neurological disease that can affect one's ability to walk.

Sometimes they do, so Finlayson, 50, shares a bit of wisdom on what's

helped her cope with MS: Low Dose Naltrexone.

The Lake of the Pines woman also totes around her " LDN bag " - heavy

with packets of information on the drug she can hand out to any

curious soul.

Low Dose Naltrexone is not widely prescribed for the treatment of MS.

Many doctors will not prescribe it because no published data exists

from clinical trials on LDN in MS.

But for five months, Finlayson has found relief from her multiple

sclerosis symptoms with LDN after a journey that took her to the

depths of pain and suffering.

An avid country western dancer, Finlayson was just taking up golf

when she first felt vague pain and numbness in her limbs 10 years ago.

The symptoms progressed and Finlayson was diagnosed with progressive

relapsing MS in 1998. Her body was covered in bruises from bumping

into walls. She had whole body spasms that would come on in an

instant. It hurt to wear her Levis because of her sensitivity.

When she was diagnosed, she was presented with one group of drugs to

cope with the symptoms, the so-called CRAB drugs (Copaxin, Rebiff,

Avonex and Betaseron).

But the side-effects made her sick and miserable.

She spent so much time in pain and crying on her green-striped couch

that she vowed to trash it once she got better.

" I would be eating dinner and put down my fork and go to the couch

and cry because I couldn't get any relief, " said Finlayson, a stay-at-

home mother of one daughter, now 26.

Her drugs, some costing her $400 a month, couldn't control the pain,

so she was using Morphine patches, steroid infusions, eight 10mg

Vicodin pills a day and oxycontin - a drug given to cancer patients

when they're dying.

" I was an active person but I was in so much pain. I couldn't use my

left hand. Once you get to that point, you'll try anything, " she said

of her treatments. " I got to the point where if I went to bed and

never woke up, I had made peace with that. "

After her husband did extensive research on Internet, he found

Dr. Bernard Bihari, who agreed to write her a prescription for Low

Dose Naltrexone.

She started taking one LDN pill at bed each night. Three days letter,

she felt better. There's still pain, but no more spasms.

There's been no clinical trial to study LDN in MS. At higher doses,

it is FDA-approved to treat alcohol and drug dependency.

" Further study is needed to determine the safety and efficacy of LDN

as a treatment for people with MS, " according to a statement from the

National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

If money could be raised to conduct research, maybe more doctors will

see its benefits, Finlayson said. She is organizing a fund-raiser

this fall to do just that.

But for now, she's spreading the word herself on what LDN has done

for her life.

" I encourage people to do their homework and read about it because

it's something I feel could work, " Finlayson said. " It doesn't help

everybody and it's not like you'll be able to walk the next day, but

it's something a lot of people have found relief with. "

The Journal's can be reached at

michellem@....

http://www.auburnjournal.com/articles/2006/05/01/news/top_stories/04re

lief01.txt

[Guest guest]

I think this is a great article and Vicki Finlayson is doing something terrific. However, not everyone taking LDN experiences symptom relief. The main reason to take it is to prevent progression. Perhaps I missed it, but that information was not in the article.