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MGA News |
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April 1999
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Tribute to Professor Newsom-Davis
Diane Ranasinghe
The 13th of October 1993 marked a significant turning point in my life.
This was the day I met Professor Newsom-Davis, and this was the day I first
became aware of the MGA.
Reading of the Professor's retirement has prompted me to write this,
hoping it will beat the copy deadline for the next edition of MGA News.
Four years into Myasthenia Gravis, with ever increasing doses of Pyridostigmine
Bromide, and resisting the need to go on steroids, my condition was deteriorating.
Still in full-time employment with a Government Department on the brink
of privatisation, I was steadily losing the battle against stress with
dual vision, drooping eyelids, and blankets of myasthenic fatigue which
would descend without warning. It was then that I heard of Professor Newsom-Davis
from my niece who was reading for a degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry
at Imperial College. Not knowing if he actually saw patients, I wrote to
him on impulse, care of the Department of Clinical Neurology at the Radcliffe
Infirmary. The appointment that followed changed my life. It paved the
way to my acceptance of and determination to fight the bete noir of MG.
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| Diane awaiting Sunset at Ayers in February 1999 |
His gentle courtesy and quiet explanations did much to remove the mystique
of this rare disease, and my defences against steroids crumbled before
his kind but firm advice that herein lay the route to remission. I was
grateful also for the warning that I was likely to get worse before I got
better. It prevented me from descending into total despondency in the 10
months that followed before the high Prednisolone intake began to 'bite'.
And it was while waiting to see him that I read of the Myasthenia Gravis
Association, in a poster on the wall of the waiting room ! Through all
these years, membership of the Association and attending the conferences
has given me immense strength.
Two years ago I was able to visit my family in Australia. I was even
able to make it to Ayers Rock, a triumph which I shared by means of a PC,
with Dr McKeran my Consultant Neurologist. To him too I owe a deep debt
of gratitude for shepherding me through ever decreasing doses of Prednisolone,
to the remission I have achieved. I am now on 50 mg of Azathioprine a day
and 2.5 mg of Prednisolone every other day. While wishing Professor Newsom-Davis
a long and happy retirement, I have to say I am delighted, as no doubt
many of us myasthenics are, that the MG Clinic will continue under him.
MGA NEWS April 1999
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