Long intro from the new mod

[Guest guest]

has generously asked me to take over as moderator for her. Since

I'm usually quiet here unless I have a question, I thought I should post

a new intro so everyone knows who I am and what I'm about. I know I

promised this intro a couple days ago but I've had a couple sick kids

and my husband's had to work late --like midnight or later- since Wed.

Anyway.. about me.

I've been a member of mscured for roughly a year and a half now. I

joined shortly after I started having ms symptoms again. My first MS

symptom was burning, tingling and numbness in my left foot when I was 15

or 16. My dr did tests for diabetes because Type 1 runs in my family,

when all came back normal, he dismissed the whole thing. At 18 I started

experiencing the 'ms hug', although then I had no clue what it was.

Again, drs passed it off... they assumed the pain was related to asthma.

From then on I had various, seemingly unconnected symptoms that nobody

could explain. My parents wrote me off as nuts and my drs weren't far

behind.

Six weeks after my oldest daughter was born I had an asthma attack that

almost killed me. My pulmo told me " I have you on the highest amount of

meds I can give you. If the asthma doesn't kill you, the meds will. "

I went home and learned everything I could about treating asthma with

herbs, supplements, diet, meditation, and creative visualization. 2

months later I was off most of the asthma meds. One year later I was off

everything except what they now call a " rescue inhaler " and I was only

using that once a month or so.My lung function tests were equal to

someone without asthma.My Pulmo was awesome and followed me through the

process. At the end of that year, he asked me to write out exactly what

I had done because his wife had asthma also, and he wanted to use my

methods on her.

After my 2nd child was born the pain returned. Some days I was unable to

even hold a fork because it hurt so severely. My kids' dad and I

divorced because he didn't believe there was anything wrong. He thought

I was faking. So I became a single mom of 2.

Through the years, I still had various and odd symptoms, numbness, brain

fog, exhaustion, weakness, severe pain, etc.. never at the same time,

and never longer than a month. None of my drs took me seriously

Then, 8 years ago, my left leg went completely numb from the knee down.

I was scared and went to the ER. The ER doc blindfolded me and stuck my

leg with a needle 30+ times. I felt 2 minor pokes. They admitted me and

ran a slew of tests... (can you say pin cushion anyone?) After about a

week of poking and prodding, someone did an MRI. It came back

'abnormal'. A neurologist came in and asked me a slew of questions and

did a 2nd MRI. The next day she told me " I think you have multiple

sclerosis, but I can't give you a definite dx until you have another

attack. " She sent me home with a quad cane and no real info. When I got

home, I did a lot of research and basically saw my life flash before my

eyes.

The numbness went away, and so did my fears. Life was normal..well..

except that I had no feeling in 2 of my toes.

2 years later, I was over come by joint pain. Horrible pain. I was

unable to hold a fork. My kids and I lived in a 2nd floor apartment and

I literally had to have someone help me get up the stairs to my

apartment after work each day. I landed back in the hospital.. more

tests. Everything came back normal. No one did an MRI and so it was

ruled as stress. I told the new docs what the first neuro had said and

they all dismissed it.

2 or 3 yrs later, it was stuttering and hearing loss that landed me back

in the hospital. Same thing.. except this time they did the MRI. Of

course, It came back 'abnormal'. But that neuro told me that the

abnormality was inconsistent with MS. It's stress. Go home.

Intermittent symptoms continued, and I started referring to them as

" that weird neuro thing. " When I was dating my now husband he was

holding my hand one day and looked at me funny. " you didn't feel that? " ,

he asked me. My response was " feel what? " He had squeezed my hand and

I felt nothing. My left hand was completely numb. I reminded him of the

odd symptoms I'd had and that I told him they thought I might have ms.

The next day, he started researching ms and alternative methods to treat

it. The first thing we did was cut out any and all packaged and

processed foods. We stopped eating out. He had discovered an MSG link to

ms. I went back into remission and almost all my symptoms went away.

When our daughter was born, about 2 years ago, I started having symptoms

again. This time more serious symptoms, like memory loss and dizziness.

My vision went and I had to stop driving. I joined this list. Again, we

did the round of doctors and pin cushion tests, and MRI's .. and again I

was told " yes, your MRI is abnormal. But I don't know that it's ms. " Of

course, this is after he offered me neurontin for pain and copaxone and

I refused, because my youngest was only 6 months old and I was still

breastfeeding her. During that visit, he left the room and while he was

gone, I went through his notes on my case... sure enough. he had written

that I most definitely had MS.

I've use things I've learned here, and things my husband and I have

researched to halt the progression and reverse the symptoms. I've

regained the all the feeling in my foot and hand, the stuttering,

weakness and dizziness are all gone, and my vision has returned to

almost 20/20. My husband and I continue to research and learn more about

treating ms and other illnesses with alternative and natural medicine.

Most days I feel better than I ever have. ... which is good because we

have 6 kids I have to keep up with and homeschool. I also run my own

business.

I've taken over as moderator as my way of saying thank you to those of

you on this list from whom I have learned so much. I hope that my

knowledge and research can benefit everyone here in some way.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

Yvette

(moderator)

[Guest guest]

Thanks for donating your time and wisdom.

Heidi N

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