swiss medicaPlaying golf 4 months after the treatment
Ben: Okay, it’s been four months now since I’ve been for treatment in Moscow with Swiss Medica. Um, I’ve improved dramatically. My main symptoms before I went to Moscow was my walking was very poor. I’d have to walk with a stick. I couldn’t walk very far. My balance was quite poor. Fatigue was massive one. I’d have to rest… I’d get dizzy when I’d get tired, fatigued and light-headed. I’d get vertigo while I’d get fatigued. My right arm would go lazy and I’d find hard to pick things up, obviously. Just my cognitive function when I was fatigued would be poor. Even when I wasn’t fatigued, I wasn’t much better. So, those were my main symptoms. Heat as well. If my core temperature would get a little bit too hot, I’d get dizzy. I’d feel sick, nauseated. In bed, I’d found hard to sleep because my legs were always tingling. They’d either be absolutely burning in bed or freezing. There’s no happy medium in between.
Since I’ve come back four months later from Moscow, my walking’s improved considerably. I don’t really get fatigued. I get tired, but that’s cause I’m exercising as a normal person. But I don’t get fatigued. My cognitive function’s better. So, my memory’s improved. My concentration’s improved a lot. I’m not stumbling over my words. And my right arm doesn’t get lazy anymore, which is great. I can grab things and hold them. And my dizziness and vertigo’s pretty much gone. I used to suffer a lot with headaches as well, or head pains, which would last between 8 and 20 seconds… just a sharp sort of ice pick pain in my head. That doesn’t really happen anymore. And the only time it does is when I’ve overdone it by pushing myself to my limits too much. I’m pretty much as I call it back to normality. So, that’s great, absolutely amazing. I’m more active now, should I say. And I can do things like walk the dog twice a day. And I walk her for a mile or two in each walk.
I’m going to the gym, and I use my home gym once, maybe twice, a day, as well. I’ve got to go swimming again, whereas before the sensation of the water on my legs was a bit painful. Now, it’s still not normal, but it’s bearable and I can swim. I even started jogging on the treadmill. I only did 5 to 10 minutes, but when you’ve been walking with a stick for 2 to 3 years feeling like you’re 70 years old, jogging is a massive thing for me. I’ve got a snowboarding holiday booked at the end of March, so the end of next month. So, I’m hoping that my legs will be strong enough to take me to the Alps and back.
David: You entered a firework display as soon as we got back from Moscow, something that you were never able to do because of the noise and the lights and the bangs and everything. You went through a rugby match, which is something you’ve never been able to do because you don’t like being in the crowd, especially a noisy crowd. You’ve been tenpin bowling, which is something you weren’t able to do because your balance… and the strength. You didn’t have the strength to lift the ball up.Ben: Yes, I didn’t have the strength to do it. There’s virtually nothing now that you can’t actually do.
Ben: I can do everything I want to do now, which is the important thing.
David: We’ve just discussed what happened in Moscow. When we arrived at the airport, we were met at the airport and taken in a minivan, minibus, to the clinic, which is in the outskirts of Moscow. The journey was about half an hour, 45 minutes, something like that. Ben’s room was very much… more like a hotel room than a hospital room. It had its own bathroom, television, etc. The treatment started at 8:30 in the morning, after breakfast, and consisted of usually intravenous infusions of… we’re not quite sure what, but we believe it’s amino acids and vitamins to try and help bring in strength up. And in the afternoon, it was usually the stem cells, again through intravenous infusion. And that happened pretty much every day for ten days. We could see Ben’s progress literally day by day. You’re improving, eating better, your appetite was coming back, pretty much on a daily basis. You’re also… your sense of humor was starting to come back and you were able to laugh and chat with the staff. So, we could actually watch the progress literally day by day. And it’s carried on ever since we got back. And you’re still improving, which is lovely to see.
Ben: So, I walk my dog twice a day up and down hills. I walk her round a mile and a half to two miles twice a day. I also go to the gym. I go to the gym about three or four times a week with my friends. And we also go swimming, which I wasn’t able to do. While I’m in the gym, not only do I do weights. I do cardio exercises. Before I would overheat, get dizzy and feel like passing out, whereas now I can go on the row machine for 10 minutes. I can go cycling for 10 minutes. I can lift weights if I want to.
When I come home, I’ve got a gym in my spare room. I started lifting, started bench pressing 10 kilograms. I’m now up to… 55 is my maximum I can lift at the moment. But I’m constantly improving. I don’t get tired, I don’t get dizzy, I don’t overheat. So, all those symptoms that I was suffering with before have vanished. And apart from getting tired… not fatigued, just tired… that would be the only thing. But that’s expected from absolutely everyone if they do exercise.
I’m really happy with all the improvements and the progress that I’ve had. I used to really enjoy driving and then obviously when I’ve got MS, it was just day to day… So, if I had to get to the shop… is it busy outside, have I got enough energy to do it? Whereas now, I would just jump in the caravan and go to whatever destination I need to go to. I’m happy with all my improvements. I’m happy with not having any symptoms and living life like a normal person now. So, once again, thank you to Swiss Medica and for everyone that helped me to get there.
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