CONWAY — Dawn Louden, who has multiple sclerosis, has no doubt that it’s God’s plan for her to travel to Russia in November for a stem-cell transplant.
The Conway woman said she just needs to finish raising the money for the procedure.
“I have to pay the hospital before I get there,” she said. “I’m going ahead, going forward, knowing that’s what God wants me to do.”
Louden has raised $23,000 over the past 21 months with the help of her family, friends and fellow church members at First Baptist Church in Vilonia. However, she needs another $30,000 to fund the trip and procedure.
“People have been a true blessing to me,” she said. “I’m just trusting God for the rest.”
A spaghetti dinner and silent auction are planned for Oct. 24 at Second Baptist Church in Conway. Drive-through meals will be available from 4:30-6 p.m., and a sit-down dinner will begin at 6.
The cost is $8 for adults and $4 for children 12 and younger. Children younger than 3 may eat free. Advanced tickets for the carryout or sit-down dinner are available by emailing Louden at dawnbeginninganew@gmail.com.
Louden, 42, was accepted in Chicago for the procedure, which will use her own stem cells in hopes of stopping the progression of the disease, but she spent a year wrangling with her insurance company, which would not cover the cost of the treatment, she said.
She said stem-cell transplants for MS and other diseases are in stage 3 trials in the United States, the final stage. However, the procedure is approved in other countries, she said, including Russia and India, where she was also accepted.
She has been in contact with a Russian doctor through email, she said. Louden said the procedure is less expensive in Russia than in other countries, too, adding that doctors there have performed the procedure for more than a decade.
“It’s using my own stem cells, exactly what they use for leukemia patients,” Louden said. “They’re using this [procedure] for Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus. I don’t want to say it’s a cure, but it’s possible to stop your disease, so it’s very exciting.”
Louden said she has met three people with MS who have had the procedure, including a man who hasn’t had any symptoms since his stem-cell transplant.
She said her condition has worsened over the past year.
“I need to move quickly,” she said. “I’m having a much more difficult time, but that’s the way it is with MS.”
Louden, a native of Ohio, was diagnosed with the disease in 2005 after years of being told “it was all in my head, or that it was stress,” she said.
Her mother, who died in 1995, also had multiple sclerosis and fought long and hard for a diagnosis, Louden said.
MS is an abnormal response of the body’s immune system, in which it is directed against the central nervous system — the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. The immune system attacks the myelin, the fatty substance that surrounds nerve fibers, as well as the nerve fibers themselves, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis website.
Louden said that most recently, she has had “horrible stomach pain” and gastric problems that have landed her in the emergency room twice in the past four weeks, and she’s undergone testing.
“It’s all the MS,” she said.
She said she waited until last week to buy her ticket to Russia to see how her finances were. Her admission date for the procedure is Nov. 17, and she plans to fly to Russia alone.
“I’m not totally ignorant to the fact that it may not happen, so I’m getting a ticket that is refundable and a visa that’s good for three years, in case I have to move the date,” she said.
She and her husband, Kevin, have four daughters, ages 10, 13, 15 and 18, and a 23-year-old son. Louden home-schools her children “with a lot of help,” she said.
“I will lose all my hair through the chemotherapy, so I think I’ll shave my head before I go so the kids can get used to it, and just to have fun with it. Heck, I may even do it at the spaghetti dinner. Who knows?” she said, laughing.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.