Tingly Feeling All Over With MS

I couldn't help but write today about my wife's experience at the Chiropractor.  We have been using Chiropractic for years to help with my wife's MS, and have seen miraculous results using it.  Yesterday she was struggling with stomach issues which she has struggled with off and on for years.  What's hard is knowing whether it has something to do with Multiple Sclerosis or it's just bad food.  She can become violently sick from a meal she eats regularly so we feel like it has something to do with the digestive problems that seem to be associated with her MS.  I say all of this to share something that happened today after her Chiropractic visit.

During her adjustment she began to tingle all over her body.  It's not unusual for an arm or leg or part of her body to tingle, but this was much more than usual.  She also had burning in her stomach immediately after the adjustment.  We exclusively use Pro Adjuster Chiropractic because it's the best Chiropractic treatment we have found for my wife.  After the adjustment was over she continued to tingle and her stomach burned for a bit and then it quit.  Sometimes after a visit she feels tired and needs to sleep and other times she has a spurt of energy and feels great.  Today she felt wonderful after the adjustment and the tingling left her body not long after she left the office. 

The odd thing with the visit today was her stomach burning.  I don't remember that happening before, but it always amazes me how our bodies are made so that everything is interconnected.  By adjusting her spine and aligning her body, her stomach was affected along with nerves all over her body.  Today was confirmation once again that using Chiropractic is vitally important for my wife's health, and we feel it is one of the core treatments we can count on every time she has Multiple Sclerosis symptoms or issues.

Stomach Problems With Multiple Sclerosis

For years my wife has struggled with stomach issues.  Some days she can eat a certain meal and have no issues, then eat the same thing for a meal the next day and become nauseous and vomit.  Today is one of those days.  Yesterday she was fine and having no stomach issues, but today she ate a meal that she eats often and has been vomiting all afternoon and evening.  Once all of the food is gone she starts to feel better and can go days or weeks until she has issues again.  Not only does she have nausea but the stomach pain can be very intense.

My wife's MS symptoms have come and gone through the years, but the stomach issues seem to be something that sticks around.  Sometimes she's gone weeks or months without having issues then out of the blue she can't seem to eat anything without becoming sick immediately.  I know it's quite frustrating for her when she knows that no matter what she eats she becomes sick, and so far we haven't found anyway to stop it other than just waiting it out.  Multiple Sclerosis can definitely be frustrating at times, and we will keep looking for patterns of why her stomach is having issues.  Until we figure it out, we will continue to make sure she is eating right, drinking plenty of water and doing the other things we know to treat her MS symptoms.

It's Been Awhile

I didn't realize it had been so long time since I've written anything so I wanted to give everyone an update.  My wife is doing really well with her MS.  We've been living life and taking care of the Children's Home that I run.  She's had a few minor issues here and there and it usually has to do with her not doing the things she knows she needs to do like resting, eating right and making sure she drinks plenty of water.  Recently we spent a few days at the Rocky Mountain National Park and she hiked over a mile up to Dream Lake and did great.  It always surprises me how well she can do and how far she still continues to push herself.  Here's a picture of the lake that she took while I fished. 

We've met many people lately that have MS, and it always surprises them when we tell them my wife has MS.  They are also amazed that she's not on any MS meds or other drugs.  We are still treating all of her MS with natural treatments and she is still doing great.  We do have a change coming.  We are moving to Colorado to work at another Children's Home, and we are looking forward to the cooler weather and low humidity.  When we lived in Albuquerque, she had fewer problems than anywhere else we have lived so we feel like it will be the same where we are moving.  And, we will live 30 minutes from Estes Park where we can hike, bike, fish and continue to become healthier.  Life is good, and life can be good even with MS.  My wife was diagnosed over 22 years ago and she is still living life on her terms.  I'll try to write more often when we move because I'll have more time.  I have some thoughts I want to share on a few things that we've learned lately that I think could help others struggling with MS.  How are you doing with your MS?

New Year with Multiple Sclerosis

As 2012 comes to an end my wife and I are already setting goals for next year.  Over this past year my wife has lost 35 lbs, had very few major MS issues, learned more about how to treat her MS and she is ready to take 2013 by storm.  She has already set a goal of losing another 15 lbs and I have no doubt that she will lose it before summer because she is already starting to focus on her eating again.  One of the other big goals we have for this year is to completely wipe out our debt.  We have been lazy about budgeting this last year so over the next week we will have our whole year mapped out.  Cash is king so we are going on an all cash budget starting January 1. 

Right now my wife is already starting to go through our house and unclutter our home.  We know that extra clutter is just taking emotional energy so over this next year we are downsizing our "stuff."  We already have a plan in place to have a big garage sale to not only get rid of our stuff, but to pay off more debt.  We are already bringing in extra income from our online efforts and Christmas was good to us online, so we will put that money towards debt too.  We really feel like less stuff and less debt will help both of us.

Over this last year my wife has really felt like she is taking more and more control over her MS.  She had less major issues and anytime we felt like she might have problems, we immediately took action and did the things we know to do to treat her MS.  I know that we both feel like we know more about how to treat her MS, what warning signs we need to watch for and are looking forward to her health getting better and better. 

What goals are you setting for the new year?  Are you starting a new career?  Will you be traveling somewhere special this year?  What are you going to do for your health this year?
 

Stresses of Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis

If you have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis or are going through the testing now to figure out exactly what's causing your symptoms, then you know that this process can be stressful, frustrating and long.  When my wife first started the testing for her MS over 20 years ago, she felt like a lab rat.  They ran test after test and everything kept coming back negative.  If you're knowledgeable about how MS is diagnosed, then you know that there isn't a single test or even a battery of tests that will give a clear diagnosis.  My wife had MRI's, a spinal tap, blood testing etc. and everything kept coming back negative.  Even her MRI showed no spots or issues, but all of her symptoms pointed to MS.

I'm not a doctor, and this is not medical advise so please don't take it as such.  What I'm writing this for is all of those individuals out there that are frustrated and stressed out because they've spent months and months trying to figure out what is causing their fatigue, numbness, tingling, pain or whatever other symptom they may have.  My wife saw multiple neurologists and no one would diagnose her with MS until she went to see Dr Roy L Swank in Oregon.  Dr. Swank spent years and years researching MS and he developed the Swank MS diet to combat the effects of MS.  During her first visit to his clinic he immediately diagnosed her and put her on the diet.  We both really wish Dr. Swank was still alive and practicing because his treatment and counsel helped us through many rough spots with my wife's health.

Here is what I have learned about the diagnosis of MS.  Since there is no definitive test, the diagnosis is based on the symptoms and multiple testing that is done.  In other words, MS is a collection of specific symptoms and can be very difficult to diagnosis.  The other thing I learned when we ran a Naturopathic Doctor's office was natural treatment of diet, rest, supplements etc. can do amazing things for auto immune diseases like MS.  Starting a healthy diet can happen today and is something that anyone can do to make their health better.  Our Naturopathic Doctor really believed in the Breaking the Vicious Cycle diet for Auto Immune diseases.  We were able to see the successes of this diet and used it ourselves for some time.  I say all of this to say don't get depressed, frustrated and feel like you have no control because in our experience, anyone can better their health with a few simple things like diet and limiting stress in their life.  My wife completely understands the desperation that can come from wanting to know what is causing her health issues, and over time we have decided to take control of what we can and not stress about what we have no control over.  Take control of what you can today like diet, rest and limiting stress in your life and know that it can get better.  My wife is a living testament to this.

Update on Online Business

I've had a lot of response on a previous post about online marketing that I do to create passive income for my family, so I thought I would update you on one of my recent efforts.  Many Muliple Sclerosis patients are not able to work full time and they would like to supplement their income with a business online.  Over the last few years I have been working my way through the "mess" that is internet marketing to find a few systems that actually work.  One of those is a system utilizing a free platform called Squidoo that I found about 2 months ago. 

This particular product was created by a mom that wanted to stay home with her kids, and worked to create a substantial online business to support her family.  The system is super simple, providing all of the information on how to setup simple Squidoo Lens to drive traffic to Amazon.  You receive a percentage of anything the visitor buys on Amazon along with additional income you can earn from Squidoo itself.  After 2 months of building lenses, I have about 25 up now and have sold a little over 50 products on Amazon this month.  I can do the research, build the lens, and have it up and running in just a few hours, and since it's on Squidoo it's free to build.  I don't have any hosting costs or domain name costs.  Pretty sweet deal to create income without any financial outlay.

If you are looking for a system to create income online, I would highly recommend Squid Pro Quo.  You can view the sales page here -  www.warriorplus.com/w/a/rhdfr.  I want to be totally up front with you and let you know that I make money from selling this product.  That's not why I'm recommending it to you though, I'm recommending it because it really does work.  I hesitated to even put the link on my blog because I don't want this blog to be about selling something.  If you've noticed I don't put ads on my blog or anything else because I want it to be about helping those with Multiple Sclerosis.  If your like me, money struggles can be one of the most stressful issues in your life and if I can help a few people to relieve some of that stress then it's worth it.  If you want to know more shoot me an email or leave a comment and I will do my best to share what I've learned.  If you do end up purchasing it, please let me know and I will help you if you have any questions.

Multiple Sclerosis Dizziness

Through the last six months my wife has worked extremely hard to listen to her body as she is having issues to see what she can do to help.  One of the issues she struggles with off and on is dizziness.  Sometimes its dizziness that leads to vertigo type symptoms and other times it's more of an annoyance that she just deals with throughout the day.  One thing she has learned is that she can stop the issue with rest and water, and if she drinks a lot of soda or tea it can bring on the symptoms.

This last week we went out to eat after a stressful day.  She and I both drank sweet tea and she drank 3 full glasses.  After driving back to the our offices, we were standing around outside the vehicle and the dizziness hit her.  Within minutes she could feel her head spinning and knew she needed to get home.  She went home, laid down and drank water and the dizziness went away.  I think it amazes both of us how quickly her body reacts to things, whether good or bad. 

She knows she has to drink plenty of water to keep her body hydrated and pays for it when she doesn't.  Years ago when we first started researching Naturopathy and how to treat MS differently, the first seminar I went to was on how dehydration affects MS and other Auto Immune diseases.  Since then, my wife has tried to make sure she drinks plenty of water every day and finds out really quickly when she doesn't drink enough.  The only other treatment we have used for dizziness is Chiropractic, and she is adjusted regularly so usually we don't have to take a special trip to the Chiropractor for dizziness.