How did I get here?
Let me give you a little background on my own healing journey and what has brought me here, to this moment.
I was at work in January of 2000, when the phone rang. After five months of being poked, prodded, and x-rayed, the physician diagnosed me with multiple sclerosis. The treatment, he said, were injections that I would need to take the rest of my life. And just like that, I was passed onto the pharmacist who would teach me how to inject myself.
I wasn’t sure how to process the information, and I felt alienated and afraid by the lack of options. I declined all the drug therapies because I just couldn’t understand how someone could be so insensitive to diagnose an individual with such a debilitating disease – with no cure – over the phone. Any trust that I ever had for the medical community dissolved in that moment. As a result, I started studying MS on my own.
At the time, my husband and I were happily married. We had just purchased our brand-new home and had a beautiful five-month-old baby girl. Our heating and air conditioning business was successful, and I held everything I ever wanted in the palm of my hands until the diagnosis bomb exploded it all into pieces.
During the first few years of the initial diagnosis, I spent thousands of dollars going from one doctor to another. I was angry and confused. As I began understanding more about the traditional medical system, it made sense as to why these doctors I questioned were trained to apply the standard of care for various symptoms to MS patients. They were trained to recognize the symptoms and apply preventative measures. They weren’t trained to look at the whole of the human being.
I refused to believe this was my only option. I felt like a medical refugee, fleeing from the traditional medical state and the side effects of the medicine recommended. I knew deep in my being that there was a root cause for what happened to my body and, as a result, there was a possibility of finding a solution. I just needed to find out what was happening and what the right ingredients were for my body to move into the healing state.
My curiosity led me from one healing modality to another. Each had merit, but ultimately I learned that MS can be a conglomeration of many causes. I began to realize all the warning signs I had along the way – the chronic infections, repeated antibiotic and steroid use, chronic fatigue, and underlying nervous system trauma – that might have led to the devastating diagnosis of MS.
Along the way, I discovered others who have healed from multiple sclerosis, including doctors. Instead of recreating the wheel, I followed their lead and applied their techniques and tricks to my life.
In 2017, my MRI showed no new lesions on my spinal cord and brain. Finally, my dreams had come true: I had stopped the progression of this dis-ease. What was next? I couldn’t let stopping the progression be the last step. Now, to begin reversing the damage that had already been done, I started digging deeper, taking a look at everything from gut health, underlying infections, toxicity, and nervous system trauma. Now, I am pulling back the curtain so you can join me on this incredible journey of healing multiple sclerosis.
Throughout the last twenty-two years, I learned that MS is not “mine.” I don’t own it, and I refuse to be defined by this illness. I realized early on by using the term “my MS,” I was communicating to my body the wrong information. Words are extremely powerful and by simply changing my words to “the MS,” I changed the trajectory of my thoughts and emotions, thereby entering the healing state and giving my body the best possible chance at recovery. I believe our bodies are either in a state of ease or a state of dis-ease. Our bodies are designed to heal themselves. All we need to do is give them the right ingredients for the right amount of time and we can all return to health and wellbeing.
That is why I founded NotMyMS.com, a place for everyone dealing with MS to be curious and explore together. It’s a safe space for you to feel better right now, to empower you with options, and to wrap you in a supportive community of people with similar experiences.
Let me be clear: NotMyMS.com is not here to answer all of the questions; it’s here to help ask the questions and guide you into a state of ease and recovery. NotMyMS.com will help you become your own medical advocate. By looking at illness differently through the lens of curiosity and compassion, we can not only heal our bodies, but we can also show the world a path to better health and wellbeing.