Finally after getting my mri on my knee and lower back [after being denied] I need knee surgery [again] and injections in my lower back. My left knee has a torn meniscus on the side and my back has had another disc which has degenerated further.
Here’s the kicker, my knee issue WILL happen again. I already had surgery on this knee once before for a torn front meniscus. My left knee hyperextends back 20 degrees which makes it snap back and cause damage to my knee. So, why not just fix the problem causing this issue? Because I spend the majority of my time in a wheelchair and why does it really matter about my knee. Well, it matters to me! I use a walker in my home for as long as I can. I usually end up back in the chair due to knee pain from pushing myself. So, for me, it is a huge deal!!
I have chronic progressive Multiple Sclerosis. SO WHAT? Miracles DO happen and maybe one day the cure will be found and I will walk again. So just fix my friggen knee!! The bad ligaments have nothing to do with my MS. It is from skating [roller and board] as a kid, working on concrete floors, and plain ole use before I got ill!
As far as the insurance company is concerned it is a ‘wasted’ surgery for me. As if they are saying, “Who cares, it’s not like she will walk right again anyways!” I can almost hear them laughing.
Well, I am not going to sit by and listen to them laugh, I will have the last laugh. If it means contacting my representatives, I will. If it means going public, I will. No one knows my future with my MS. So how the hell can they ASSume I will never walk again. I believe that one day the cure will come and it will still be able to help me. It is called HOPE!
Wait til they get a load of me…..
Blessings and Peace!
Making it Through the Rain 
I have MS and I’m working on it. Doctors don’t seem to do anything but offer me drugs to relieve the symptoms and follow already established protocols. Doctors are a waste of my time. They are only interested in restoring health but in reality before that can be accomplished, they must know how the problem was created. They refuse to look at cause because if that can be identified, the chronic illnesses can be prevented.
On my website there is a number of videos but the one that is preloaded at http://illnessdefined.com/about.htm should be watched. It will take about 10 seconds to load and begin playing but if you have the patience, it will give you a new perspective on illness.
A second location on my website is http://illnessdefined.com/Diseases.htm . This will give you a protocol that should not be ignored by anyone, but is always dismissed my almost every medical professional.
Both locations are free and should either, make you furious or make you curious. If either or both locations don’t produce these responses, I fail and you are being held prisoner of the medical misinformation that you’ve been spoon feed, you entire life.
Think of health in terms of illness and the world changes for you. Think of health in terms of recovering and you will find yourself chasing your shadow for the rest of your life (and money).
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If I could go back knowing what I know now, things might be different.
I stopped smoking almost 4 years ago under the advice of my doctor and changed my eating habits. I am in the process of getting all my old fillings removed and new un-mercury ones in.
I do believe that many are born with certain predisposed illnesses’. Would proper diet and no toxic items help us overcome them? Maybe, maybe not.
I am on no medications for my MS. I stopped them when I did research into them and found they did not help my progressive form of the disease. The only medications I used are for pain due to my degenerative disc disorder. And that is rare.
I’ve never been ‘spoon fed’ anything. I am a researcher and my husband is as well. I’ve never been one to just ‘take’ what anyone tells me.
I also do not believe in ‘snake oils’ which many have tried to get me to try.
I eat paleolithic healthy, yoga for ms, and a motorized pedaler.
I watched a few of the videos, and pretty much have felt a lot of things on my own. I really think common sense plays a huge part as well.
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Look into Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN). It might help
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Great, inspiring blog! I’m so sorry you’re going through this. Maintaining hope is so important for those of us who live with chronic illness or disability. I don’t understand why some doctors/insurance companies are so hell bent on stripping us of that.
Peace & Love to you Sweetie
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Hey Robin! My doctors actually would do this for me. It’s the insurance company fight. People have no clue why we need healthcare reform…here it is. lol
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Hey, crazy lady living with MS, you are not alone. I have done some 30 years of research and son of a gun, I wrote a book. That’s right but the subject of the book in publicly on Google Books at http://tinyurl.com/2bjpaa . You can research to your heart’s content but until you ask the correct questions, your research is in vain. Don’t waste you time reading about MS. Ask the question “What is illness”? It is not until you answer this question will things begin to make sense.
You can not learn to fly until you know the science of what keeps you in the air. That is the definition of flight (Bernulli’s Theorem).
You can learn to ride a bike before you know the theory of balance. However, your parents will always have a knot in their stomaches, until you learn the science. Once you learn about balance, you get to experiment with the science and do tricks.
Go to Google Books and read chapter 2 . . . please.
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Not sure how to respond. Our environment definitely affects us all.
But, even w/o the toxins, the metals, we as people all have a different genetic make-up. One person may be predisposed to an affliction, where another may not.
I am the only person in 6 generations with my type of disease. I do believe if I had eaten better, not done drugs, not worked in toxic environments, my MS may not have ‘shown’ up.
I have twins, one has asthma, one does not. They do and eat the same things. Go the same places.
It is a combination of our genetic make-up and our environment [foods, toxins] that cause the diseases or keep the diseases at bay.
I come from a family of medical people. They believe more in the energy and the alternate ideals then just popping the pills.
I would love to go back and know what I know now. Would it truly be different… no one will ever know.
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Tracy,
I’ve talked to family members and found that nearly a half dozen of my father’s relatives have had serious spinal issues that led them to surgery and/or disability.
Cancer is also rampant in his family, at least 4 or 5 types of cancer.
I agree with you that I think it’s a combination of factors, but in my family’s case I tend to believe we, for whatever reasons, are predisposed to certain illness and disease.
Robin ox
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Exactly Robin. I believe in the pre-disposition theory. I do believe that living a healthy lifestyle, eating a god ‘diet and taking car of yourself can help to keep them at bay. But, it really depends on the person and their genetic make up.
I do paleo lifestyle: http://www.paleodiet.com/ I lost 20 pounds and felt [mentally] much clearer. Then we went off of it and ate like most people, fast food now and then, etc and the weight came flying back on.
We are now back on it. As I am living proof it works.
This link is another fav: http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/Paleolithicdiet.html
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I would love to chat about all the things that make you feel good and help you cope, but that is a defeatist conversation. I may never be able to reverse my condition (disease?) but that doesn’t change what I have concluded from my studies.
I don’t use the words “Toxins or Environment”. The reason is simple . . . those are words that make you feel important and get you feeling like a victim. The simple fact is that “Toxins” can’t be measured and “Environment” means everything and anything that some people or some group doesn’t like.
To be poisoned can mean only one of two things, “chemicals or metals”. Start looking for chemicals and you will be looking for the rest of your life. Test for metals and you will discover that there are only 35 possible and we get exposed to 6 to 10 every single day.
OK, you won’t believe me because this is to simple an answer . . . that’s fine. Dismiss me if you choose but if others say the same thing, don’t you believe it’s worth testing to prove me wrong?
I’ve got others, probably smarter then I am, saying essentially the same thing. You can hear them at my Podcast at http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/18621 .
OK, now you’re thinking, “What’s in it for him?” Well, I do sell a book on my website, but I don’t care if you ever buy it. I wrote the book to protect the definition of illness before a doctor stole it. Other then that, everything else on my Podcast, blog and website is free.
Don’t want to listen to my Podcast? or look into my website? or tell me how arrogant I am on my blog? OK! Take a look at a one sentence Protocol that I wrote and if you are not furious or curious about it’s simplicity, I have failed.
http://illnessdefined.com/Diseases.htm
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“I don’t use the words “Toxins or Environment”. The reason is simple . . . those are words that make you feel important and get you feeling like a victim.”
Excuse me? Well, I am important and I am no victim!
No one is dismissing you, we are/were having a discussion. I do not do well with condescending comments and those who see only in black or white.
Why would I tell you you’re arrogant? You believe in what you believe as do I.
Maybe if you changed your approach to others and treated them as equals, which I am, you would better make your point.
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Tracy,
You always handle yourself so well.
I agree with you, I am important and I refuse to be a victim. I survive, persevere and am always moving forward.
I’ve had a number of people share with me the conclusions they have come to as per their own experiences. I respect
that these are the conclusions they have arrived at as a result of their own personal journey, but I keep in mind that every one of us is an individual. Our experiences vary.
Even within the same disability diagnosis, individuals can be effected in different ways. Drug treatments can affect different people in different ways, diets and eating plans can help different people in different ways.
One friend of mine has experimented with a number of herbal and mineral treatments. He’s had some successes, some failures. He is constantly telling me what “the” answer will be for me.
While I appreciate his caring and compassion, and I have given some of his suggestions a try, I have had some very serious side effects as a result.
Much Love!
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I remember when the ‘bee sting’ theory was around! Everyone wanted me to try it. Turned out it was a not so good idea! Thankfully I did not try it!
You hit the nail on the head Robin. We are individuals and are all different and handle situations differently.
xoxo
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