All throughout the time I’ve had this disease, I could never
really understand what was happening to me –or really why. That’s nothing new to anyone with MS – the “could
be, may be, might be” disease. Drs. and I
knew the Myelin was degrading, but there is no consensus of understanding of why. I didn’t know if the disease was rooted in
auto-immunity (current prevailing opinion) or was punishment for throwing rocks
at squirrels as a kid. But one thing I did
know was that I was dehydrated. I was
always constipated, my throat always felt dry, and I drank a lot of water for
really no reason as it just flowed right through me. Lots of water in, lots of water out, still
feeling dry. Looking back, I wish I had
some type of cellular hydrometer to measure and quantify my level of hydration,
because I think it’s a crucial part of solving this puzzle.
In conjunction with these thoughts of hydration, I’ve been curious
about WHY the CCSVI process worked. What
was going on inside the head? The body?
The cells? Is it the iron molecules as
Dr. Zamboni suggested in his studies, or did the body have a temporary (perhaps
permanent) avenue to reinvigorate and introduce blood – or more blood - into our
microveins? I don’t think anybody really
knows yet. Many have offered up ideas
and people really love to get the human body all tied up in knots complicating
things to the millionth degree. There
are 40-60 known clinics around the country doing CCSVI procedures, and probably
hundreds of vein care doctors who do it without advertising, all with varying
degrees of success – and opinion. The MS
Society and many doctors think it doesn’t work with any degree of regularity,
and say results, if any, are short-lived.
Even my success is seen as a failure in the medical community because I
ended up re-clotting to the point where I lost my ability to be a surgical
candidate on the left jugular any further.
Everyone agrees MS is a disease caused by lesion growth in
the brain, but nobody seems to agree what the root cause is. Many theories have emerged over the years,
and blood flow, as one theory, has come and gone. Prevailing thought on all the mainstream
websites is that the disease is an auto-immune deficiency resulting from the
body attacking itself. Many of us who
have this disease don’t believe that for a number of reasons, not the least of
which is the failure to explain why no lesions in MS patients are below the
shoulders. The disease has been
relegated to the back rooms of most neurology clinics and doctors’ offices because
it’s the ugly stepchild disease that can’t be fixed or really treated
properly. Doctors throw medicines and
drugs at it that have no more proof of efficacy than CCSVI. In short, MS is a great big bowl of bad
spaghetti and nobody knows why. The
extra bonus is they tell us we’re getting closer to finding the solution every
day, but there doesn’t seem to be any proof of that either.
So back to hydration.
My theory for some time now has been that MS isn’t an autoimmune disease,
and that CCSVI works (even if temporarily) because of blood perfusion. The missing link, I am thinking, is
hydration. Not the feeling thirsty kind
(although that would certainly kick in), but being hydrated at the cellular
level. The kind of hydration where your
skin feels less dry and more pliable.
The kind of hydration where constipation is part of your past, where you
hold a much higher volume of urine before having to empty, the kind where water
consumption does something inside instead of flowing right through, and when
you forget to drink water in the afternoon one day you don’t end up with a
massive headache.
Well, that’s exactly what’s happened for me. After a few sessions of seeing a healing
therapist, a woman about my age who has had an amazing gift for healing
her whole life, I have become more hydrated, and I have several improvements in
my condition to prove it.
1) I have never lost the ability to squat down like
a catcher in a baseball game and stand back up, but I did lose the ability to do
it without holding on to something. I
can now. My legs have become stable
enough to do that a few times in a row. I still have trouble walking any
distance over a couple hundred feet, but I can usually go down stairs without
holding on to anything. Up is still
tough.
2) Wet sneezes.
Ask anyone around our office. I
sneeze 20-30 times a day, and they are always 2-3 times per event and always
dry. I could sneeze at a dinner party
right in someone’s face and they’d think the open window was letting in a
breeze. Until now. Sneezing is down considerably, and much more productive. Every time I sneeze now we have to get out
the squeegees and wipe the windows down.
3) My urinary volume has almost doubled. I still don’t pump it out, it’s still urgent,
etc., but it’s less frequent because the size of the bladder trigger has
increased, substantially increasing the time between bathroom visits. I now generally wake up once a night to
urinate, occasionally two. Imagine how
that feels for sleep and waking up in the morning. If you’ll recall, at my worst, I was going to
the bathroom every 20-45 minutes, waking up exhausted every morning.
4) Morning headaches gone. Yes, gone.
Everyone who works with me at our office knows I’ve spent the better
part of an hour or two every morning for the past few years trying to get rid of a hangover-like
feeling. CCSVI initially did this too, by the way.
5) Bowels as close to normal as I can imagine. No constipation, no need to help things along
like enemas or Magnesium. I just go to the
bathroom regularly now. I haven’t had an
accident in a long time because I use my mornings to make sure I’ve emptied before
going to appointments and I’m still so used to doing that I’ll probably never
stop.
It’s a bit of a bummer writing about 5 improvements in my
system, 3 of which involve disgusting bodily fluids. So, I’m sorry. Deal with it……I have to. But If these aren’t indicators of a higher
level of hydration, I don’t know what would be.
Anecdotal? I suppose, since this
isn’t a controlled study. But these are measurable
improvements that I, and others, can see.
So, now the question is, have I crossed the line into a
healing environment? Is CCSVI a
temporary alleviation of symptoms that allows a greater understanding of what’s
happening? Is the real issue circulation? Is blood accessing the microscopic arteries
and veins that supply the areas where we lucky MS people get lesions?
What this fees like to me is hydration is leading to an
environment in which healing, ie, myelin regeneration, can take place. We won’t know for a while because even
in the perfect environment nerve cells are the slowest to grow. So stay tuned. I’m hoping to report some leg improvements in
the near future. I’ll just to keep it
under a year this time.
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