Recovering from Multiple Sclerosis: Real life stories of hope and inspiration: Real life stories of hope and inspiration - Softcover

Jelinek, George; Law, Karen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1743313810 ISBN 13: 9781743313817

Verlag: Allen & Unwin, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

MS is considered to be an incurable disease, but these inspiring stories of people diagnosed with MS show that recovery is possible. These stories track the journeys of twelve ordinary people from around the world, offering real hope for people with MS everywhere.

'This is a must read for anyone with MS. Recovery is achievable. It is all about the lifestyle choices we make every day!' - Dr Terry Wahls, MD, author of Minding My Mitochondria

'These stories of hope, inspiration and sustained lifestyle change speak loudly. for doctors and patients, as well as patients' carers, family and friends.' - Barbara T Hannon, Rehabilitation Physician, Medical Journal of Australia

A diagnosis of multiple sclerosis conjures up images of wheelchairs and a shortened life, but in fact it's possible to regain mobility and make a recovery. These deeply moving life stories of twelve people from around the world offer real hope to people with MS everywhere. These determined women and men have been able to halt the progression of the disease and recover mobility by making significant lifestyle changes including diet, sunshine, meditation, exercise, and for some, using drug therapy.

Based on extended interviews, these stories offer an insight into the different journeys to recovery. They also highlight the challenges faced by people with different types of MS and at different stages in the progression of the disease.

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George Jelinek was the first professor of emergency medicine in Australasia and founding editor of the journal Emergency Medicine Australasia, and is the author of Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis. Diagnosed with MS in 1999, he has gone 13 years without relapse and is symptom free. Karen Law is a journalist and is managing her MS.

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Recovering from Multiple Sclerosis

Real-Life Stories of Hope and Inspiration

By George Jelinek, Karen Law

Allen & Unwin

Copyright © 2013 George Jelinek and Karen Law
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-74331-381-7

Contents

About the authors, 
Foreword, 
Acknowledgments, 
Introduction, 
1. Call of the korimako Wendy Wood, 
2. The healer Jack McNulty, 
3. Ride on fearlessly Keryn Taylor, 
4. Where hope began Craig Wheeler, 
5. Conversion of a true sceptic Ginny Billson, 
6. Proving them wrong Carrie Philliskirk, 
7. A hard-fought battle for knowledge Rebecca Hoover, 
8. All about love Gaspar Hoyos, 
9. Finding authenticity Megan Swan, 
10. A model of health Phil Hassell, 
11. Harnessing a rebellious streak Sam Gartland, 
12. A breath of hope Linda Bloom, 

CHAPTER 1

1. CALL OF THE KORIMAKO

WENDY WOOD

Sitting on her timber balcony looking out over the magnificent Matakitaki River, Wendy Wood turned to her husband Steve in late 2009 and brought up the one subject that had been secretly haunting them both. Had the time come to leave their beloved guest lodge on New Zealand's South Island? Was multiple sclerosis about to take away their dream?

In fact MS had threatened to take away that dream before it had even begun. More than ten years earlier Wendy and Steve were living and working in Hamilton on the country's more populated North Island. Both originally from England, they had been attracted to New Zealand by the active, outdoors lifestyle. When Steve's engineering employer relocated him there for two years they decided to stay for good, making regular fishing, walking and diving holidays part of their new lives. They were very happy in Hamilton, but the lure of the wilderness and beauty of nature kept tugging at their hearts. No longer content to live in the city and holiday in the wild, after a few years they had started making plans for a permanent move into the rugged countryside. They dreamed of opening up a guest lodge, a place where they could spend the next phase of their working lives. They were approaching 40, with no children, and the many years they had both spent working had given them enough spare capital to invest in 100 acres (40 hectares) of land.

During this period the tell-tale signs of MS had already started creeping into their lives. The first mild attack came after a hiking holiday with friends walking the beautiful Kepler Track. Wendy and Steve climbed high onto a mountain ridge, passing between Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri before descending the rough path on the other side. As always they carried all their food, clothes and camping gear on their backs, enjoying the strenuous exercise and the challenge of the walk. A few days after returning home to Hamilton, Wendy noticed that her feet had started to go numb. When the feeling spread up to her knees she consulted her GP about the problem. 'He was great,' she remembers. 'He always took me seriously and never fobbed me off.' He sent Wendy to an orthopaedic surgeon, suspecting she may have constriction in her spine. However, a CAT scan came back clear and a month or so later the numbness disappeared. 'My doctor said we'd keep an eye on it but not to worry.'

Then in late 1998 Wendy and Steve set off on another long trek, this time walking the Abel Tasman Track. Again they carried all their gear on their backs, enjoying the four-day hike along the rugged coastal paths. As they walked they talked about their future, the plans and dreams they had for the parcel of land they had bought in the Matakitaki valley. They thought up designs for lodges, discussed ideas for sustainable living, native tree planting and eco-friendly guest rooms. 'It was always in our minds that we were going to build a lodge; we had all these great plans and my health didn't feature in our thoughts at all,' says Wendy. But on the final day of the walk their planning and dreaming was brutally interrupted.

'Towards the end of the hike I started to get severe pain in the backs of my knees,' Wendy remembers. 'It got so bad that I couldn't carry my pack anymore and poor old Steve had to carry mine as well.' They completed the trek with Wendy hobbling her way painfully over the final kilometres, and Steve soldiering on with his own pack on his back and Wendy's pack strapped to his chest. By the time they emerged from the track Wendy was having difficulty straightening her legs.

At the emergency department of the local hospital, the doctor thought cysts might be causing the problem. At that stage Wendy didn't connect the two leg incidents, but when she returned home her feet started getting numb again and she went back to her own GP. This time he sent her to a neurologist, fearing Wendy had a tumour on her spine. After a fairly lengthy MRI she went back for her results on Christmas Eve. Steve went with her for support; they were both very worried about the prospect of cancer.

The neurologist looked up at Wendy from his chair in the consulting room and said, 'I'm very sorry to tell you that it's not cancer, it's MS.' Had it been a tumour, he explained, he would have been able to operate and fix the problem.

Wendy and Steve were speechless. They were relieved that it was not cancer, but really didn't know what to make of the shock diagnosis. Wendy had very little knowledge of MS, and until then she'd had no reason to investigate the disease. 'I knew it wasn't nice, but I knew it wasn't something that was going to kill me straight away,' she says. The neurologist referred Wendy to the local hospital for intravenous steroids, which were helpful as the numbness subsequently subsided. As he was not fully convinced it was MS, he also recommended getting a second opinion and referred Wendy to a leading MS specialist in Auckland.

'This second neurologist confirmed that I had MS, but he also told me it was quite likely that I had benign MS and might have no more difficulty than just occasional patches of numbness,' Wendy recalls. 'We talked about the disease and he told me there was no need to take drugs at this stage, but that steroids would help if there were any more episodes — and interestingly, he also recommended a "heart smart" diet.' He also quizzed Wendy on her medical history, looking for clues about past illnesses and infections that may have triggered the disease. Wendy remembered that a couple of years earlier Steve had contracted chickenpox and had been quite unwell for a time. After nursing him at home, Wendy had later developed shingles in a line across the small of her back. It was not the worst case of shingles, but bad enough to be uncomfortable. The neurologist certainly considered this significant, particularly as the MS lesions that had shown up on her MRI exactly mirrored the line of shingles on her back.

With a mild diagnosis of MS confirmed and discussed with her GP, Wendy went back to her former life, blissfully unaware of what the disease would have in store for her. She and Steve decided to put their plans to build a guest house on hold for a year, to see whether Wendy's health was going to be reliable. They carried on with their busy lives in Hamilton, staying in their jobs at one of New Zealand's biggest dairy companies, where Steve was a control engineer and Wendy was a business analyst. They continued hiking, though they chose to go on slightly shorter walks where they didn't need to carry quite as much equipment. And there were no more problems with Wendy's legs. Partway through the year they enjoyed a diving holiday, and...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Allen & Unwin
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1743313810
• ISBN 13: 9781743313817
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 240
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar