Diary of a Relapse - Day 2

Feeling fractionally better than the lowest point (yesterday afternoon). Of course, I hope that was my lowest point, but I never really know until I get through it to the other side!

Here's how I'm taking care of myself today, doing everything I know that has worked for me in the past, to reduce the inflammation and recover from this relapse as soon as I can...

• Allowed myself an hour's lie-in. Would have liked longer, but needed to be up in time for that magic 8:30am slot to phone the GP surgery! (You Brits know what I mean ...)
• Prayed gratitude for a good night's sleep in a dry warm home.
• Made another super-mega-strong anti-inflammatory juice.
  Grateful to discover that my left hand was working a little better than yesterday.
• Made appointment to see GP - earliest I could get was 5pm tonight.
• Gratefully allowed my husband to make me more juice for the day, which is now in the fridge for when I need it.
• Decided that today was only for rest, writing blog, drinking juice, and that I would not under any circumstances waste precious energy on any housework not directly related to nurturing myself.
• Played healing music on a continual loop. Today it's 108 Sacred Names of Mother Divine by Craig Pruess and Ananda.
• Played with my blog.
• Took an epsom salts bath - not as hot as I would usually like, because I know the heat makes things worse.
• Had a light salad of mixed green leaves and half a steamed mackerel fillet, for that all-important Omega 3 oil.

I'm off now for a sleep before my visit to the GP. 
I have decided to assume that he/she will be able to listen to me as well as speak and that it will be a helpful encounter. I've realised that my negative attitude towards medical professionals in recent years may have helped to create the negative experiences that I've had.
At the very least it has helped to make me stressed, and as we all know by now (and if you don't, please watch The Connection) chronic stress helps to create chronic inflammation.

Plan to update blog after doc's appointment. Also juicy photos and recipes to follow (as soon as I'm up to it). 

Peace out xx

Diary of a Relapse - Day 1

It happens to the best of us. We do everything we can to beat this disease, but we know there are no guarantees, and sometimes, despite our best efforts, the inflammation increases to such a level that we find ourselves in a state of relapse.

The good news is that, for me, this time, it's not a very severe one. The better news is that, this time, I seem to have found it within me to hold my nerve and calmly apply EVERYTHING I've learned so far to help me get better fast, rather than simply collapsing inward and feeling sorry for myself, as I usually do. (Not that there's anything particularly wrong with that - it's just that I usually eat crap when I feel sorry for myself, which of course slows my recovery!)

This time, dear readers, I'm doing everything I can, and I'm going to tell you about it right here. If you're facing a relapse yourself, maybe you'll find something here that'll help you too. Feel free to comment and let's do what we can to support each other along this rocky path...

The story so far

This relapse first started to threaten about a week ago. I called my GP to discuss how to self medicate with the small supply of low-dose oral steroids still in my cupboard from a previous relapse. When he suggested that rather than following the older protocol of 30mg/day for 5 days, followed by slower tapering off, I take 500mg a day for fewer days - as per the newer NICE guidelines - I panicked a bit and said that I'd rather try to manage without. Half a gramme a day of steroids seemed excessive and I hate to take really strong meds if I don't have to. I thought my mild symptoms would settle down in a few days by themselves.
They might have done, IF I'd done everything I know right then. I'm talking mega-strong green juices several times a day, meditation, bedrest, releasing angry and stressful thoughts, walking in the garden, and so on.
My big mistake is that, having turned down the drugs option in favour of the natural option, I then didn't properly implement the natural option. I carried on with my part-time work, slept no more than usual, did no meditation and virtually no exercise, and worst of all, I continued to indulge my addiction to stressful thoughts and situations. 
One thing I did get right was to have an acupuncture session last Friday, and some gentle yoga on Monday. But that alone was not enough to fend off a relapse after weeks of bad habits. It's like weight loss - you can't eat fattening junk all day and then expect a single trip to the gym to make it all right.

So, now facing an actual relapse, I have the choice between criticising myself for dropping the ball or focusing on how to get better. And this time I choose the latter.

Here's what I've done so far:

Yesterday (day 1)

• Contacted work to explain that I would be unable to teach tonight. I'm so exhausted I'm not sure I'm going to get through this post before I have to go back to bed. And if that happens I'll deal with it. No more being a hero!
• Made myself the greenest, most anti-inflammatory juice I could think of.
  Juicing with the use of only 1 and a quarter hands was not as difficult as I'd feared - just took patience and more time than usual. My left hand had only about a quarter of its usual dexterity, making fiddly tasks like unwrapping cucumbers particularly tricky. Felt very grateful that my right hand is never as badly affected as my left!
• Ate only simple "clean" plant foods all day: berries, green salad, live sprouts, fruit, Omega 3 -rich linseeds and organic soya yoghurt - as much as I wanted, but without overeating (a rare change for me!)
  And plenty of cups of tea, because I like tea and don't want to give myself any sense of deprivation. (I make it with organic oat milk, so there's no dairy and no factory "nasties" either.)
• Let my husband make me another strong juice when he got home. Felt very grateful for my husband.
• Got to bed on time, after praying gratitude for this opportunity to learn something new about healing.

Click here for day 2...

Introducing "Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis" - the evidence-based recovery programme

The day I was discharged from hospital after my first MS episode in 2006, I started reading everything I could find on how to heal myself. I wasn't going to be oppressed by my neurologist's "doom and gloom", or by thoughts of my mother's fateful battle with MS. I chose not to see myself as having the same condition as the woman dying in a nursing home - I couldn't afford to think that way. So I started looking for advice that went beyond "you'd better make the most of it while you're not too disabled, because it's going to get a whole lot worse".

At first, I didn't find much.

No-one seemed to have any information about what I could do for myself on a daily basis to improve my odds. 

Then I was lucky to come across Ashton Embry's "Best Bet Diet", and a few years later, the "Wahls Protocol" by Dr Terry Wahls. Both of these dietary approaches referred to the published research at the time and aimed to slow the progression of MS, with some success. Both were devised by people with scientific or medical expertise beyond anything I could hope to achieve in this lifetime. Both helped me, just as they help thousands of others with MS, to limit the progression of symptoms - to a greater or lesser extent.

Then in 2014 I discovered Prof. George Jelinek's book Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis. Jelinek is a highly esteemed medical doctor and editor of a major international medical journal. Since his own MS diagnosis he has applied his medical expertise to the business of analysing the published research in all areas of MS, and creating a unique "recovery programme" that includes diet, lifestyle, vitamin D supplementation, exercise, stress management and even emotional healing. He doesn't rule out disease-modifying drugs (DMDs) either, he just tells the truth about their limits. For Jelinek, dogma is nothing and results are everything, and he knows to overcome a systemic and drastic disease you may need to make systemic and drastic changes to the things that caused it in the first place. You need to do "whatever it takes", he says.
Reading the book for the first time, back in June 2014, I knew I had in my hands something with the potential not only to control but actually to reverse my symptoms. I was filled with confidence by Jelinek's thorough, evidence-based approach, and by the fact that it was a whole-life programme - more than just a diet. It sought to address all the factors that seem to create and sustain this illness and wasn't afraid even to talk about the mind-body connection that doesn't tend to show up too much in your average neurological consultation.

Prof George Jelinek: MD and MS Pioneer

It helped that, reading his words, I liked the guy too. Here is someone who grew up watching his mother succumb to this vicious condition that ultimately claimed her life prematurely. I could relate to that. And then when he suddenly, in the prime of his life, gets the same diagnosis, he doesn't collapse in self-pity - he rolls up his sleeves and says:
"OK, this sucks but I'm going to whatever it takes to beat it. I'm going to use all my skills to do what mainstream medicine hasn't done yet: bring together ALL the existing knowledge about MS and work out how to recover from this thing before it progresses any further."

As he applied everything he learned to himself, his condition stabilised and then fully reversed. In 2010 he published his discoveries in book form, so that thousands of others could take control of their MS in the same way.
Over fifteen years after diagnosis, he is vibrant, healthy, symptom-free, and a walking, running example of what can be achieved with dedication and the right information.
I am so grateful that I found the book when I did, and grateful that after less than a year of attempting to implement all its recommendations, I am now one of those thousands of healthy people.

If you or someone you love has MS, or indeed any similar auto-immune condition, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. A word of warning though: the programme is not for the faint-hearted. It demands radical change in many areas of your life. At least that's how it's been for me. But I've had such amazing results that I have to say it's been totally worth it. As an added bonus, it's led to my husband improving his health too. 
I've also met many other people who have reversed their symptoms, even people with primary progressive MS. So at the very least, it's worth a try, isn't it?

Research News: Good news about MS & Depression

So there I was last week complaining that the boffins weren't connecting the dots - between MS and depression - and all the while there was the latest paper from the HOLISM Study sitting in my inbox, and it's looking into exactly that! 
It's a very useful paper, especially for those of us living with MS, and as you might imagine, it contains both good news and bad news.

The bad news is that people with MS are considerably more likely than the general population to experience depression. We also have higher risk than people with other chronic conditions. But if you have MS, you probably knew that already... 

The good news is that there are things we can do - or "modifiable lifestyle factors" as the study calls them - that can make a significant difference! OK, you probably guessed that too, but doesn't it seem more solid now we know there is peer-reviewed scientific evidence to prove it?

Don't Do This

The study found that certain lifestyle factors are associated with increased risk of depression in people with MS. These are:

• Poor diet
• Little exercise
• Obesity
• Smoking
• Social isolation
• Taking interferon

I imagine these would increase anyone's risk of depression, come to think of it! 

I must admit to cringing a little as I read this, as I know that I get nothing like as much exercise as I could! 

Do This

The study's recommendations make much cheerier reading. The researchers point out that making the following changes will reduce our risk of depression:

• Healthy diet including some fish
• Supplementing with daily Omega 3 oil
• Supplementing with vitamin D3
• Regular exercise
• Regular meditation
• Social support 
• Stopping smoking

Of all these factors, it was perhaps meditation that showed the greatest risk reduction for depression. The study found that people with MS who meditated at least once a week halved their odds of getting depression. That's pretty encouraging stuff in my book!

Anyone following the OMS Recovery Programme will already be doing most if not all of these, and of course there is detailed discussion of some of the evidence supporting these measures in Prof Jelinek's book. In the coming weeks I'll be posting more information about each one in turn, so watch this space!

To read the full paper - free of charge - go to the BMC here.

How are you?

The trouble with any kind of autobiographical writing is that the story isn't finished yet. As philosopher Joseph Campbell and many psychologists would tell you, we humans generally use narrative structures, or stories, to understand and explain our experience of life. But a narrative requires a shape, ideally a pleasing arc, with a dramatic beginning, a problematic middle, and a satisfying end. Life, unfortunately for the would-be writer, is not very obliging in this respect.

Both the conditions that I live with are notoriously unpredictable. I'm not even able to answer the simple question "How are you?" with any accuracy. I always feel a need to clarify: "Do you mean how am I today, this week, this month, or this very moment?" Because, you see, it really is that changeable. 

This moment, as I sit here writing, I feel physically well, and mentally/emotionally a little fragile but more or less functional. However, whenever it is that you open this page, dear reader, I may be suffering a burning neuropathic pain, or straining against a bone-deep fatigue, or training for a 10k run, or floundering in a suicidal mire. Five minutes from now, a difficult phone call, stray Facebook comment, or other apparently innocent interaction may trigger in me a dangerous rage or a soul-sucking depression that drives me back to the brink. Or a minor trip, bump, or upset may set off a full-blown MS relapse.

We wait for the neurologists and the psychiatrists to realise that a human being is a single entity that cannot be so neatly compartmentalised, and figure out what is really going on within the Bermuda triangle of MS,  depression, and emotional volatility. Meanwhile, those of us who are not content to wait for yet another liver-toxic drug - which would only treat the symptoms anyway - must find our own way to surf the stormy seas of our inexplicable lives. And find mine I will, even if it takes a lifetime.

So it would seem that I have no nuggets of wisdom to offer today. Today, I cannot write my life - blogger, columnist and almost-author though I may be - because the truth is I haven't finished living it yet.

Some sound advice from Dr Wayne Dyer as we approach this new year

I don't usually repost other people's material, but I have found these Facebook comments from Wayne Dyer so helpful that I wanted to share them here with you in their entirety ....

Post by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer.

Happy new year day moment to you all!

Winter Warmers: Easy Veggie Soups

Photo source: www.planktonsoup.co.uk

I love hot soup this time of year! 

OK, so who doesn't?

And at a time of year when there seems to be too much unhealthy so-called "comfort food" pushed in our direction, it's particularly important to keep our tummies happy with something that'll do us some good.

But I do think it's odd that there are so many soup recipe books on the market these days. I searched the website of a certain online bookseller for "soup recipes" and got over 12,000 results. How many of those titles will include virtually identical recipes and photos? How many ways can there be to cook and blend some vegetables?

To my mind, home-made soup is about as simple and satisfying as hot-buttered toast - but less inflammatory and more nutritious, naturally.

So here it is, just for you, my super-simple 6-point recipe to turn any veggies into a delicious, warming meal, in next to no time.

1. Dry-fry* some onions in a large deep saucepan.
   You may also want to add spices such as ginger root, chillies, black pepper, turmeric, cinnamon etc, depending on which veggies you're planning to "soup".
2. Add your chopped veggies. Choose flavours that you think will work together. It's easy to get a feel for it. For example, hard vegetables such as carrot, celeriac and butternut seem to complement each other, whereas softer veg like mushrooms, leeks and courgettes generally work well together. Or you may just use 1 single veg per soup.
3. Sweat* the vegetables and onions together on a low heat with the lid on, for 5-10 minutes.
4. Add water and turn up the heat, remembering that the lower your cooking temperature, the more nutrients remain in the soup. Avoid allowing the water or soup to boil if you can - but don't stress it if you can't. It's only soup.
5. Now add in any herbs you may want. If you do this too early, they can lose their flavour. Which herbs? Again, use your nose. We all know that coriander is often paired with carrot, but don't forget other great options like parsley, thyme, basil, and mixes like Herbes de Provence or just good old "Mixed Herbs". Fresh is good but pre-chopped and frozen herbs are much more convenient, and probably fresher, unless you grow your own.
6. Blend the mixture when all the veggies have become a bit mushy. I prefer a hand-held "stick" or "wand" for this because it makes less washing up.
   Choose the consistency you want. I like thick, smooth soups, so I don't add anything, just blend it right there in the saucepan, then serve. For a more runny texture, add some more water before blending. If you like it chunky, you can hold back half your cooked veggies before blending, then add them in afterwards.

Cooking Terms:
*Dry-frying is frying without the use of oil, either in a very good dry non-stick pan or using a little water. It is also possible to add a teaspoon of healthy oil to the water, and take care to ensure that the oil + water suspension doesn't become too hot.

*Sweating vegetables is cooking on a low heat with just a little oil, to allow them to release their juices. I've found replacing the oil with a little water works just as well - just enough to prevent sticking, but not enough to boil the veggies.

A note for OMSers:
I don't use any oil while cooking soup, but I usually stir a teaspoon of linseed oil into my bowl immediately before eating. This way the oil isn't heated too much, I'm getting some of my daily 20ml requirement, and I'm slowing the absorption of the natural sugars by including some healthy fat.