My MS Journey - Part 1

I want to share my experiences to empower anyone who needs it. I loved the stories I came across and always promised myself I'd share at some point.

So here it is....

A little disclaimer before hand.... I am not a doctor. This is what I did based of information I gathered over several months of researching. 

IMAGE CREDIT: Inara Studios

IMAGE CREDIT: Inara Studios

I was getting sick. A lot. It was always with a ton of random ailments and I just kept attributing it to stress.  I had a lot going on at that time, I had just bought my first place, got engaged, was planning an wedding, so many "normal" stressful things that life brings; I thought I was just bad at handling stress. It had been several years of weird ailments, so I just shrugged it off. I also knew I never managed stress well in the past, so I just figured I needed to get better at that. I started getting into yoga a lot more and trying to find ways to relieve stress through meditation.It would help occasionally, but I still had a lot of issues. 


I would have terrible headaches that felt like my head would explode, terrible leg cramps that landed me in the ER, painful weird arm spasms that would cause my hand to be unable to open, and one of the worst was vertigo. It felt like I had way too much to drink and the room was spinning, except this would last for days. Laying in bed (cause that's the only way to exist in that state) and at the worst times crawling if I needed to go anywhere cause I would fall over if I walked. The only thing you can really do is throw up. Well, that's vertigo, fun huh? My then boyfriend (now husband) drove me to the doctor the first time it happened and I threw up about a dozen times on the way. Car rides and vertigo just do not mix! 

After many doctor visits and ER trips, it was suggested I see a neurologist, but we were getting married soon, so I postponed seeing a doctor, but eventually went when things continued to get worse. I had an MRI that showed lesions all over my brain, which lead to a lumbar puncture. This all lead to my diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis.

I was absolutely devastated. Not because I had this new diagnosis, I've always been pretty tough and a perpetual optimist, so I was not devastated with my diagnosis, but because I was told by one of the best neurologist there was no hope. No hope. My fate was sealed according to him.  I remember very clearly being told how severe my MS was and that I was just going to get worse and for some reason I believed him. There were so many lesions on my brain and that medicine might help manage my symptoms, but untimely I would just continue to get worse. I would continue to loose functionality in my legs and be in a wheel chair within a few years. I was so sad thinking about all the things I never did. Sad that it seemed as if there was nothing I could do, that I had no control.

I had steroid IV drips regularly to help give me some temporary relief when I'd relapse. I was giving myself a shot every other day of Beta Seron. I was on a long list of medications. I counted at one point and was taking 12 pills a day.  Sooooo many chemicals going into my body DAILY. I thought about my Grandma who was free of  medicine up until the day she dies at the age of 94. No medicine and was still rocking it out. Counting those pills was one of the first times I had a moment, a moment where I realized that this just didn't feel right to me. I was always a bit crunchy and never took a lot of medication. Everything about this diagnosis and treatment felt wrong. How could I, at 28, be taking sooo many pills daily and my Grandma at 94 wasn't. I felt almost worse than before I was diagnosed, and now I also felt like a zombie that was drugged up, constantly.  My thinking REALLY started to shift.

Since I just continued to get worse my neurologist suggested this new alternative treatment that is supposed to have amazing results. Campath. Chemotherapy. I remember being shocked at the suggestion, but the benefit was supposed to be a new immune system and hopefully not have as many symptoms, thus less medication and NO MORE SHOTS. I was reluctant, but decided it might be worth it and doctor knows what's best, right? 

Well it was chemo, what can I say? It sucked. Luckily I didn't have as high a dosage as someone with cancer and  I didn't loose my hair, though ti changed my hair significantly, but I was soooo sick. At this point, I couldn't use my arm and started to be unable to use my legs. I was really scared. I was so incredible sick for weeks, months really. It was a few months before I  felt even slightly human again, but I didn't improve. I just continued to have more symptoms and they were getting worse. That's when I really started to get mad. Really mad. Sometimes anger is what you need to see the light. I started researching and asking about natural options or just vitamins he could suggest, but they felt vitamins "wouldn't do anything due to the severity of my MS." In fact, they actually let out a little laugh. 

That helped me make a huge decision.  I decided no more doctors for my MS. I'd done a lot of research at this point and felt I should take the chance and see if I could do any better on my own. Maybe I couldn't, but I thought I could at least try. (And just by the way, that doctor was very nice, I just think a lot of doctors have tunnel vision and don't want to see outside what they are taught).

I had recently been given a holistic MS book about MS from my Dad, a juicer from my Mom, and another health book from a friend about curing all sorts of ailments.  I started researching A LOT and I mean really researching. All day. Every day. Contacting people who had healed themselves, reading books and articles, watched documentaries, I  treated it like it was a full time job. It was all I did. This all started the path to getting better.

I was really, REALLY scared to attempt a natural path. I had just spent over a year of my life talking about my future and how it would absolutely and inevitably include a wheelchair, so it was a scary decision for me and my husband. Several people thought I was crazy, but I went with my gut, my intuition. 

I didn't exactly know what I was doing at the time, but I knew through what I was finding that other people were living a normal life after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, so surely I could too. 

That's what I will be sharing with you next. 

I am going to share every bit of what I did and still do to assure that I am symptom free. 

coming next week...




My MS Journey - Part 2 - The Natural Path That Cured Me

The natural path felt right to me. It makes more sense to nourish your body, so that your body can heal itself, rather than fill it will toxins to kill what is ailing you. Especially when the ailment is caused by toxins.  I am a crunchy girl at heart and always have been, so this idea just felt better to me.

Here is everything I did. Now, I didn't do all of this over night. I started small and continued to implement more natural healthy things into my life. It would have felt incredibly overwhelming to try to do all of this at once. So, if you decide to take a similar path, start small. 


What all this reading and researching did was make me realize how incredibly unhealthy I was. I had always thought I was relatively healthy, I'd drink health shakes and usually  kept my weight down. I gained weight occasionally, but would crash diet on Atkins or just eat protein shakes and loose it quickly. This is all healthy right? Ugh. I did not know a thing. Looking back, there were several signs when I was younger that I was extremely unhealthy, but well, you don't know what you don't know, right?

I learned there are three basic things you have to do. Detox, Alkalize, and nourish you body.  On a side note disease can't live where there is oxygen. 

So to elaborate a bit, I started with detoxing. I did soooooo many cleanses. Again though, start small. When I started I did not think, hmmmm I'm going to do every cleanse I can possibly find. No. Not at all. I decided to just start. That was it. Just start. So don't let this overwhelm you. Make small choices, stop eating fast food, eat organic, replace one meal a day with a salad, stop smoking, stop drinking, do a cleanse, anything you do that is unhealthy try to cut out. Anything you do in excess. It's all about baby steps. Once you get momentum you can take on more. Choose one thing at a time, it's a lot less overwhelming this way.

Again, I did MANY cleanses. I've done several colon cleanses, colon hydrotherapy several times, liver cleanse, kidney cleanse, parasite cleanse, toxic metal cleanse, blood cleanse, chelation. In total over the years I have done 23 cleanses and that number keeps growing. I still do one or two cleanses a year. The majority of those were done in the first year or two. They are NOT easy. It takes commitment, but every time I do one I think there is no way I could feel better than this, until I do the next one. I am going to elaborate on each one of these in another post soon cause it is A LOT of information, but if you want to get started now on a cleanse this is the best information, and where I get everything for my cleanses, is through Global Healing Center. They have a plethora of useful information. There is so much to learn from their sight, I feel like I have spend hours, days even on their website and always come across something new. If you have a topic you'd like to know about, put it in their search engine, it always pulls up something useful. There are questionnaires on there to see how toxic you actually are and give you everything you need to know ,step by step to help you do a cleanse. I can't say enough good things about this website and their products. This is absolutely the best place to start. 


A great documentary on the effects of metal fillings

A great documentary on the effects of metal fillings

Something VERY scary that I learned and one of biggest eye openers for me was a very sweet friend of mine introduced me to the fact that while all these cleanses were great and imperative to healing, it didn't remove the most toxic thing in my body, it would all be in vain. What is that exactly? Well I had no idea, but amalgam fillings, the metal fillings in your mouth are INCREDIBLY toxic. I remember having a thermometer as a kid that was filled with mercury. It broke once and my Mom freaked!! DON'T TOUCH THAT!! You know as Mom's do, but I was confused why this stuff that I wasn't supposed to touch could make me extremely sick, how was it ok that it was in my mouth? It was confusing then and is still confusing now.  It's something that was very eye opening.  My Mom took a medication while pregnant, she of course had no idea at the time, but it cause me to have poor enamel on my teeth, so I had more cavities as a kid than normal. I ended up with 23 metal fillings in my mouth. Once a friend pointed out how bad this was I started putting it together. I have been getting sick since I was a kid, every time I got a new filling I would get worse. When I was diagnosed with MS, my symptoms kept getting worse. But why? I also around this time due to stress became a teeth grinder. This stuff was getting into my cells, my brain and causing serious illness. I realized in all my times of stress I would get so sick, it all started making sense.

It just became clear I had to remove them. If you decide to have yours removed make sure you find some one who specializes in removing them properly. I watched a documentary about removing them properly, a friend recommended. ( I'm trying to find the title of that one and can't. I'll update this if I find it.) I went to a random dentist after learning all of this and wanted to have them removed. I wanted to also make sure I was protected through out the removal process. I got through my insurance and they just told me not to believe everything I hear and went on to remove the filling and used no protection.  I got really , really sick. I was so mad at myself for not following my gut. I then found Dr. Nina H Foley. She is amazing and took all of the precautions necessary to assure I did not have any problems throughout the removal process. It took several visits, but once I was finished I felt sooo much better. I then did a metal cleanse, but this part of the process was one of the most noticeable and impacting to me. I could almost immediately feel a difference. 

The second part is Alkalize. When I skip this one I feel it!! When your bodies PH level is out of alignment you are more susceptible to illness. This is one of the easiest and best things you can do, in my opinion. There are different ways to do this. One of the easiest ways in my opinion is though Apple Cider Vinegar. It has the be the one with 'mother in it'.  It's not tasty, in fact, it's pretty tough to handle. I have to mix it with something generally, especially when I first starting taking it. It's rare that I just take a shot. Hating this so much actually got me into making my own Kambucha. It is pretty tasty and has the same effect. It's fun to make and I can add different flavors. Regardless of how you do it, it;s important to do. You can actually get THIS test to check you PH level.

THIS IS MY GRANDMOTHERS TRICK. She took ACV every day of her life in a tea cup with lemon. She was the healthiest lady I'd ever known. She was 94 years old when she died and she truly just wound down. She was not on ANY medication and was as healthy as could be her whole life. I hope I am as lucky as she was, to have all your wits about you and still be living life in your 90's.

The third part is to nourish. This country is so unhealthy. I'm included in this too. We hear that all the time don't we? How unhealthy we all are. There is a reason for that. The obesity rate is incredibly high. We are taught low weight is healthy, as long as you are skinny you must be healthy. Diets are fine as long as it's, low fat, low card, low calorie. You get my point. Again, so much I didn't know either. I first mentioned how I would drink protein shakes and crash diet, well those things may not be bad if you're doing them the right way and getting the right brands and right foods, ect. For me though, I was not doing it the right way. The right way is harder. I was never eating vegetables or fruits, or just trying to be healthy. It happened occasionally, but never often enough. I was introduced to several books and documentaries. I am going to share those with you now.

The documentaries I thought were most impacting were Food Matters, Dying to Have Known, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, and Forks over Knives. They are so incredibly inspiring and will change your life. When was the last time you ate a vegetable, or some fruit, let alone several times in one day. We have so many foods that are grown right here on this planet of ours and most of us rarely eat them. They are so full of healing capabilities, I promised myself that I would eat as much of them as I could. I try to make sure I eat vegetables every day now. If you follow me on Instagram, you know how much I love my green drinks. It is such an easy way to add a ton of green and nutrients into your day. 


Powder I use for subsitute to wheatgrass shots

Powder I use for subsitute to wheatgrass shots

Another thing I was told by someone awesome was that disease can't live where there is oxygen. Wheatgrass oxygenates your cells and is an amazing blood builder and has tons of health benefits. When it oxygenates your cells disease can't grow. Disease can't thrive when there is oxygen, while I have heard of this most often with cancer, it is beneficial in so many ways. I didn't have cancer, but I learned I would always rather be preventative rather than reactive. So I implement this into my routine now too. Although I'm sure taking hte real thing is better than a substitute, the powder I use is equivalent to 13 shots, so not a bad trade off. 

Here are the books I read and documentaries I watched.

Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About by Kevin Trudeau  - I will just say that this book was really hard to read. Not because its difficult to understand, it's actually very simple, but the author has an agenda and is not afraid to talk about it. It's a slightly annoying read sometimes, but the information you need is in the book. Full of amazing information and cures. I skipped a lot of the conspiracy theories and went straight to the info I needed. Highly Recommend.



The MS recovery Diet Book by Ann Sawyer -

This book is more about food allergies and how certain food may trigger your symptoms. After reading this book I decided to have an allergy test done. I found I had a mild allergy to eggs, gluten, wheat, and barley. I decided to eliminate all of these. I continued this way for several years. I learned about how you can develop food allergies and learned a lot about leaky gut. I did a lot of research and discovered when you heal your gut you can eliminate your allergies. While I did all these cleanses I also took a shot of whole leaf aloe Vera every day along with probiotics, I continued to do this for over a year. I went back roughly two years later and all of my allergies were gone. So I do eat those things now, but I try to do it in moderation. 



I also started reading as many books as I could about raw food and juicing. At the time my Mom was completely raw, this means she didn't eat ANYTHING cooked over 118°. Food that is cooked at high temperatures or overcooked  looses the majority of it's nutrients. Eating raw assures you get all the nutrients you need, so I started following recipes and trying to include to get as much raw food in my diet as I can. I've never gone fully raw, I don't know if I ever will, but it is so important to eat raw fruits and vegetables every day. Juicing is an amazingly fun way to do that too, I love my green drinks, but juicing feels like such a treat. Everyone is my house loves it. 

After years of making myself as healthy as I could I decided the last step in this process was to eliminate products I use with toxins. Cleaning products, deodorant, make up, anything I use regularly that has toxins. This is when I discovered Young Living. I am so grateful to this company. They provide EVERYTHING. I can use oils to heal my body, I can clean with their cleaning products and it's ALL completely toxic free. They have a whole line of products for every aspect of my life. I couldn't be happier to have discovered Young Living. If you follow me on Instagram, you know I am completely obsessed. These oils are absolutely amazing!!

Oh My. I just read through all of this and it feel scary and overwhelming and exhausting!! REMEMBER, I did not do all of this over night. The majority of that was over a 2 year process, probably a bit over 2 years. I still do maintenance to assure I don't get sick again and try to have as healthy of a lifestyle as I can. It WAS SO HARD! It's totally worth it though. Completely! I would do it all again in a heart beat to be able to use my hands, my feet, to walk, to be able to do ALL the things I want to do. And now I DO THEM! I am all about living life to the fullest now. We never know when we're going to die, but we have control over how we live. I'm choosing to live as healthy as possible.