For the next four years, I attacked the disease with the best pharmaceuticals available, including an advanced medication that had a bad habit of killing people in the process of helping them. Hey, beggars can’t be choosers. Sign me up.
My multiple sclerosis symptoms rapidly progressed despite the effort, and the disease partially destroyed my spinal cord. While I found ways to remain active, work, and keep a smile, by the time I was 41, the cold sensation on my lip had become an inability to walk without a cane. I also had lost most of the feeling in and use of my hands.
I went to Mayo Clinic for an evaluation and second opinion. At its completion, my supervising doctor explained I had one of the rarest types of multiple sclerosis. Medications might delay disease progression and disability, but they couldn’t repair existing damage and restore function. She added, “I recommend you do the things you want to do now because, by the time you’re 50, I don’t believe you’re going to be able to walk or travel”. I don’t even remember what we talked about after that. She was kind enough not to say, “it sucks to be you,” but the message was clear. At 37, I was a recently married father of two, an avid mountain biker, and entrepreneur. At 38, I added a multiple sclerosis diagnosis. In just nine years, I would be homebound in a wheelchair.
As I drove home alone six hours from the clinic, there were no tears. I needed to focus if I was to ignore the instructions handed to me. I would get healthy or die trying.
From that moment, I began to create a new path. As conventional medicine increasingly failed me, I shifted to a holistic mix of controlled diet, exercise, meditation, and alternative pharmaceuticals.
I enjoyed some victories. For my 50th birthday, I took a selfie walking in Amsterdam, though more out of defiance than genuine progress. (I also took advantage of being in Amsterdam to test drive medical cannabis pain management in place of my well-worn mindful controls. May as well kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.)
