This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

My first known MS attack paralysed my right arm. My HMO Neurologist said that mine was an unusual case and asked if I would come to be examined by a renowned British Neurologist who would be giving a Master Class at the Hospital. Dr. Christopher Pallis struck me as gruff and arrogant. He stood at the head of a classroom of white coated Doctors before a chalk board and asked
me to sit on a small grey folding chair. He asked me to perform certain
manipulations with my arms and hands after which he asked me to remove my boots
to continue the examination of my legs and feet. He then drew on the board a tube like
structure, making a partial “bite” in it, explaining that this was an unusual
case since the lesions didn’t go all the way through as evidenced by the fact
that the right leg was not affected like the right arm/hand. (I reflected that If
they had, I would have been unable to walk. I can’t recall his exact words.) He
then turned towards me and very assertively said that I would entirely recover
save for some residual clumsiness in my right hand. Just as assertively I
insisted “When?”which caused the class to chuckle. “In a few months” he answered
before abruptly dismissing me.

I left somewhat offended and discouraged. On
arriving at the hospital I must have been feeling reasonably well since I had
taken the bus to get there. On leaving I felt much worse and as I walked home from the bus
stop my legs were heavy as though I was pushing through 3 feet of water.
Translation, the encounter with Dr Pallis must have stressed me and the blood
must have been backing up into my Central Nervous System. I felt I had done my Neurologist a favour with no real benefit to myself.

Today, 33 years later, I can see the benefit.
I am proud to have been examined by a world famous Neurologist, especially since
I agree generally with his political values (after a look at his obituary). And I’m
convinced his analysis was the right one. My Neurologist wrote that Dr. Pallis thought I
had a spinal cord lesion (which is what he must have drawn on the board.) The HMO doctors
thought it was a Left parietal white ? (brainstem ?). The
consensus was that MS was likely, though a parainfection process was still
possible. (The MRI Head 2 Sequences of August 24, 1990 showed “the brainstem and cerebellum appear to be spared.”)

How is it that the “attack”didn’t “eat through” the entire spinal
cord which would have left me unable to walk? My answer. The Shiatsu massage of 38 days earlier.

My notes show that when I went to the
Emergency room on May 2 my upper spine burned fiercely. After the massage on May 9 I felt
a total relief, even though the steam bath/sauna heat aggravated symptoms for a few days. The
massage must have stopped the blood reflux onto the spinal cord. By May 14, even
though I had undergone a CAT scan and EEG (which normally would have worsened my
condition) I was feeling much better.

The lesson of Chapter 3 is that I inadvertently saved my legs by
getting a Shiatsu massage. I believe any deep tissue massage would have done. If I had
avoided the heat of the steam bath and sauna, I could have avoided the temporary
nervous system aggravation. (All massages release toxins from the muscles so one generally is tired days following.) My Neurologist was puzzled, he was getting ready to
launch me into steroid treatment, but then the whole process stopped. No one
asked if I had done anything to arrive at this. Too bad Dr. Pallis didn’t think to ask.
I now believe at the first onset of MS symptoms one should get a massage. Why not? I can’t see any possible harm, and the benefits may be beyond anyone’s expectations.
One final comment. I remember my father being worried about the tension in my upper back when I was 9 years old. Did that extreme tension prepare the terrain for my first big crisis? This tends to confirm my theory (for me anyway) that childhood stress damages the veins.

MS Cure Enigmas.net