NEWSLETTER no.36 27.04.2005.

Dear Friends,

There were 27 friends present and we met this time at the “Horseshoes” Ketley, for a buffet lunch. We all enjoyed a generous spread of hot and cold food, with a few leftovers which people could take with them.

It was a great social occasion for us all and we hope you enjoyed it, we certainly did. Afterwards we met up at Parkside to hold our meeting.

Regrets were received from Diana who is busy organising a new home in Ludlow - all the best with that.

Eve read out a reply from Dr. Newman concerning the possibilities for AIMSPRO. He said that in his opinion it was too early to say whether the goat serum would be helpful, and he did not think the publicity given was justified. The trial looking at l2 people with optic neuritis, assessing their visual function before and after use of the drug, although showing some minor improvement it was too early to say whether it is significant.

We decided on a group discussion on how people have been since we last met……………….

Jean has been alright but will continue having checkups.

Betty is more stable. She is working a 30 hour week and feels very tired after work.

Tracy has been to see Dr. Coventry at the PRH and is taking Gabapentin.

Gordon is still on Lyrica and feeling OK.

Marcia - her results were clear, but she goes to hospital again at the end of June.

Kelvin - still feeling tired and having some problems. He sees his neurologist next week.

Jenny is going out more and it helps, but still feels fatigued.

Mike has finished formal physio but has exercises to do at home. He will see Dr.Newman in June and hopefully discuss the constant pain he is in.

Maureen is still feeling very tired and finds she cannot walk very far at all.

Sandy is still fatigued and has now started a drug which is used in Parkinsons disease and will let us know how she gets on. She is still managing to do some work.

Carol is having physio and will see her neurologist in July.

Ben - we were so pleased he could join us again. Not much change but he’s looking forward to a holiday shortly and now has a motorized chair - watch out for him everyone!

About now we had tea, kindly made by Rita and Glenys, and just because we had had lunch it didn’t mean we had to miss out on Colin and Glenys’s cakes. Thanks very much all of you.

We were joined by some new friends, Bhupindar and his wife Manjit from Birmingham. Bhupindar contracted the TM virus in June 2004 and it did affect his eyes. He is feeling somewhat better now but has some problems with function control. Unfortunately his is unable to go back to work as yet.

Although they have a distance to travel, we hope they enjoyed meeting everyone and will be able to come again.

Our raffle made £2l - thank you all who donated prizes and bought tickets - it all helps our funds.

All in all it was a great afternoon and we will definitely do it again.

Our next meeting will be on THURSDAY, 28 th JULY 2005 at 2p.m.

At the same venue

We wish you all the best and hope to see you then.

NOTE……………Jeanette the Sister at the PRH Pain Clinic, having returned to work since having her baby, has agreed to talk to us at our next meeting.