
This is basically the text of an e-mail I have sent to Professor Richard Wiseman (http://www.richardwiseman.com/) a well-known skeptic and de-bunker who I follow on Twitter and his blog. It pretty much sums up what happened today.
Dear Professor Wiseman,
I thought you might be interested in my being referred by my GP here in Glasgow to the Homoeopathic Hospital at Gartnavel Hospital.
I have ME and Fibromyalgia and am currently being prescribed Pregabelin (Lyrica) which is giving me gvery ood results in terms of pain and fatigue relief.
I was diagnosed in 2003 by the Infectious and Tropical Disease Centre (also at Gartnavel) and after a severe relapse this autumn, my doctor referred me back to them. Despite the lastest research into the links to ME with the XMRV virus, they stated that they don't consider ME to be an infectious disease (!) and suggested a referral to the Homoeopathic Hospital. I am part of an ME support group which is particularly interested in the current medical approaches and treatments re ME, so despite my reservations for the purpose of research I agreed to go.
I did receive an appointment fairly quickly despite being told it could take up to 12 weeks. I went along this morning (24th November) for an hour-long appointment with a Dr. Bob Leckridge.
He told me he was trained as a GP but had become interested in homoepathy. He took a complete history, not only of my ME but of my and my family's health but did not perform any physical examination. He spoke at length about the use of homoepathy as a holistic treatment and his beliefs in one's health being like a river (!) flowing between the banks of chaos and rigidity. He did a lot of wee squiggles on a sheet of paer that he gave me to take away with me.
He surmised that my disease stemmed from my initial bout of pleurisy that I had in 2002 from which I feel my ME stemmed and that this had never been properly addressed. Taking into account my personality - confident and empathic he said (I felt a bit like I was having a cold reading - I told him that I was a stand-up comedian so no sh*t Sherlock), he prescribed 3 doses of Phosphorus powder 30c to be taken over 3 days and a return appointment in 3 months. He also gave me his e-mail and urged me to get in touch if my symptoms worsened before then but he did not explain what benefits if any I should feel. He also gave me the address of his website/ blog - http://heroesnotzombies.wordpress.com/.
I am going to take the powders, again for research but am concerned that NHS money is being used in this way instead of doing clinical research into a condition which may at worse now be linked to a leukemia-type virus but that the general concensus seems to view as psychological. If so, how is it that a neuropathic treatment used for epilepsy is currently of great benefit to me?
I appreciate that you are a very busy man Professor but thought that you would like to know what is being offered to ME patients like myself.
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