How Did I get here?

The longer story...

Let's just say things got weird!
I had been experiencing a plethora of symptoms for years- including -but not limited to: limping (aka foot-drop), "brown-outs” in my vision (ocular neuritis), lots of muscular pain/spasms, slurred words/stuttering, cognitive issues (delayed free recall- the scariest of all), bell’s palsy (damage to the 7th cranial nerve), thermal regulation issues, major fatigue, tingles, zings, sharp stabs… the list goes on. The pain throughout my body was terrifying.  I would wake in the middle of the night to take warm Epsom salt baths - everything hurt.

I couldn't pretend that this was normal any longer. I made an appointment with my internal medicine doctor. We immediately did an MRI of my brain and spine and a spinal tap. The next morning he called to tell me that "there are multiple dozen bilateral foci of signal abnormalities on T2-weighted and FLAIR images which are highly suggestive of plaques of demyelination related to multiple sclerosis. These lesions involve the periventricular deep white matter of both cerebral hemispheres, corpus callosum, and peri callosal white matter...thoracic spine also shows T2 lesions". Spinal tap shows presence of oligoclonal bands highly correlated with Multiple Sclerosis".

And there it was. I will never forget that phone call. None of us will ever forget that day. My doctors were surprised I was walking and functioning at all. Later I found out that my doctor pulled my family member aside and said this was a very severe case and the prognosis didn't look good and to prepare the family. My other neurologist later told me he hadn't seen such extensive demyelination on a patient and that he too thought I would have a "very rough go".

The diagnosis was where the journey began.  There were inordinate amounts of doctor appointments, being poked and prodded, and tested for everything under the sun.  I had consultations with top MDs, neurologists, nutritionists/chiropractors/ functional doctors - one in Colorado, one in Florida (Perlmutter), one in NYC, and a bunch in California.  It was crazy, particularly in the beginning while absorbing, or at least trying to absorb so much information. 

You don't know my mom, but if you met her on the street, you would never guess that she has a hippy healing core ingrained in her; it is deceiving because she is pretty darn hip (in the cool sense). That lil’ hippy in my mom came out full force when I was diagnosed; she was hell-bent on convincing me that pharmaceuticals were not the answer. I promised her I would do everything possible; thus I also worked with alternative doctors (unfortunately, Dr. Terry Wahls hadn't entered the realm yet).   Ultimately, after working with many holistic doctors, I concluded that I would go gluten-free, dairy-free (specifically cow), and ditch as much sugar as possible.

When it came to research on alternative or complementary approaches, I read about it all: chelation, hyperbaric O2 chambers, stem cells, CCSVi, and the list goes on all the way to worms, leeches, bee sting therapy, and fecal implants.  When I was diagnosed, there were only 7 medications available, all injectables. Ultimately, the drug of choice was interferon- known for some pretty nasty short and long-term side effects.  I went with one of the oldest, most tested drugs- with the strongest doses. My research concluded that hitting this disease as hard as possible upfront would offer the most protection against increased debilitation down the road as well as decreasing lesion loads (I had A LOT). I started interferon injections immediately upon diagnosis. I also had several rounds of solumedrol (steroids) to try to calm my system down. My mother was not happy about any of the pharmaceuticals. To be honest, they all made me feel like shit. The interferon made me feel like I had a 6-hour flu every 3 days. I would take it at night to try to sleep through it, in reality, there is no sleeping through it, I just got more and more tired.

Finally, after about 9 months I began regaining energy. Within 18 months, I was at a place I called "normal". My normal was always different than others….by most people's standards, I was probably only running at about 75% most of my life. After about 2 years,  I was at a place I would call healthy as would my alternative and Western doctors (not perfect, but way better than what I had known for about a decade).

Around 2012, I began working with Dr. Steven Gundry in Palm Springs. Gundry is a prodigious doctor, researcher, and a willing citizen cavy. He is a world-renowned cardiologist and I would venture to say, an inflammation specialist. His success stories are impressive, stemming from a full-blooded Western doctor who preached drugs and surgery until his patients autonomously veered out of his Western-trained advice and into supplements and diets based on their own research and health decisions. Before Gundry began venturing into functional medicine, he tells his story about how he believed that diet and supplements only made for “expensive piss”. Needless to say, he began seeing results in his patients and decided to do his own research on their blood work. His studies made him question his own medical training as well as his own health. Eventually, he diverted from the “western medicine” world and now abstains from prescribing pharmaceuticals when possible while advocating supplements and food.

When I first saw Gundry, I was still using pharmaceuticals; I told him I wasn’t comfortable NOT taking the drugs. I didn’t yet believe they were no the answer (although they still provide NO cure), but they do provide some of the empirical data that I thought was compelling. He responded, “That’s fine, I wouldn’t be comfortable either if I were you…yet” but he assured me my comfort level would change with our work together.  Within a year of working with him, I took the focus off the pharmaceuticals. I focused my energy on food and supplements. Gundry was right, it just took me some time to get comfortable and TRUST in my body’s ability to heal on its own by providing it with what it needs.

I am proud to say that I am free of limps, brownouts, depression, twinges, twitches, and pain...all that funk is 98+% gone!!!  When little things come back, I know exactly why. I cheated on my food (intentionally or unintentionally) or my stress levels went up or my sleep was shot. Despite running at 100%, I continue to improve every day and can tell you I am better than ever - every day. We all will always have room for improvement!

I firmly believe what I have learned over the last 13+ years and what I expect to learn in the future continues to have absolute potential to positively enhance any life it reaches.

I AM PROOF.