A letter from Christian and Laura Ajdemian

Christian Adjemian

Mon, 08 Feb 1999

Dear Dr. Petrovic,

Laura and I went to see Dr. Coombs in his office last Friday so he could check Laura's cough, before she leaves for Seattle tomorrow. She is doing fine, her cold is resolving itself and the cough, at this time, appears to be simply due to irritation in the upper respiratory tract. We wanted to make sure there was nothing more serious lurking.

But what prompted me to write this letter was Dr. Coombs' remark that this was the first medical visit Laura had made to his office since May 1998. At that time, she was going there weekly for IVs, and when she skipped and IV she would end up relapsed and in bed. Even with the IVs, and all the supplements and B-12 injections she was taking, she still could barely function in the house, and spent most of her time in bed, on bed, on couch, or on a lounge chair outside in the summer. The IVs had been going on for over a year, if I remember correctly, and we had tried every innovative biochemical suggestion that seemed reasonable to us and to Dr. Coombs, in an effort to reverse Laura's CFIDS, which had lasted some four and a half years at that point. That's four and a half years of basically bed-ridden life, with profound misery.

I know that some patients find your claims on the web a bit optimistic, and perhaps they are. Some patients may take longer to respond than others, and some people have to plan on continuing treatment for up to a year. But as Laura and I remembered, within one week of starting your program, her bowels - which had been raging for four and a half years - settled down and became regular, and she needed no more IVs. Further, as the weeks went by the symptoms on the CDC CFIDS list gradually disappeared. Today, Laura is still weaker than she was before CFIDS. She still needs to rebuild her strength, and (apart from last week with a bad cold) is exercising and lifting weights and walking to rebuild that strength. I used to give her the injections. Back in May 1998, her leg muscles felt like chicken fat (as Laura put it). Her muscles are beginning to stand up and have strength in them. She still does not have the energy she had before CFIDS, but we would not go back to May 1998 for anything! She has had no relapses since beginning your treatment, even though she's caught the flu and a bad cold, and has at times overextended herself. She is able to drive, she is beginning to manage basic household responsibilities and she is able to travel once again.

The cost for the treatment you provided is significant, but the Laura's treatments during the previous four years were also costly, even though Dr. Coombs made things as affordable for us as he could. No treatment is going to be as inexpensive as good health, and when there isn't a multi-national drug corporation to spread the costs over millions of doses, research and development costs will be a significant part of the package. When the research and development have brought out a treatment that is effective -- even if it is effective for less than 100% of all cases -- it is worth it.

I have no idea how much ongoing research work you do, nor how big a staff you have, nor how much it cost you to develop what you have. I do know that your work goes far beyond the supplying of pills. The costs we have incurred have also brought us your constant support, answers to our questions -- sometimes within hours -- and the encouragement that as a physician you care about your patients. We are blessed to have Dr. Coombs here, and I think we are among the few who have had the kind of support you two men have provided. If you were to reduce your costs and provide no ongoing care, how many CFIDS patients would manage during the ups and downs and changes their bodies undergo in the healing process? How can it be an easy and smooth process to reestablish proper metabolical and immune functions in the body? How bewildering and complex these processes are!

I think some people become cynical when they read your material, and wonder whether anyone could make these claims in sincerity. They might also wonder at your constant upbeat and encouraging messages. But we know, from our own experience, and from trying to help a number of other CFIDS patients, that such upbeat and encouraging support is vital! And we are thankful for it.

So, Dr. Petrovic, this note is to encourage you in your work. We do appreciate all you've done, and the help you've provided my mother as well. Of course, all of us would be even more thankful if this didn't cost so much, or if there weren't so many pills to swallow! But compared to intramuscular injections three or four times a week and IVs weekly, on top of 20 or 30 pills a day, your protocol is simple, painless, and easy. And the alternative is the continuing misery of being cut off from the life around one, enclosed in the pain and congnitive fog and lead armour of CFIDS.

We thank God you've done what you've done, and that you make it available world-wide.

Yours gratefully,

Christian and Laura Adjemian

Laura Adjemian's follow up report from December 2000
Date : Dec . 2000

On 31 Dec 00, at 21:08, Christian Adjemian wrote:
From: "Christian Adjemian"
To: longvita@yebo.co.za
Subject: Re: Nash Petrovic M.D. Information

Date sent: Sun, 31 Dec 2000 21:08:22 -0500

Dear Dr. Petrovic,

Thank you for your kind greeting. Laura flew to Seattle Saturday. Her father died there today (Sunday). The children and I are flying out tomorrow. I will write you later in January. I want to send you pictures of the family so you can see how healthy Laura looks now! Please receive this short message with continuing thanks for your kind medical work which made it possible for Laura to travel to Seattle three times this autumn, and to be present when her father died. I will write to you later in the month.

Blessings of grace to you and to your family.

Christian