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What would you do first if you could do it all over again?

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 6:56 am
by Achambers
I am a 27 year-old female. I am in the Air Force and as of last year have totally stopped preforming my duties as an Air Traffic Controller due to my symptoms. I have vertigo, blurred vision and am tired all the time. I was recently told by my neurologist that after two MRI's I have more lesions than before, but he still will not diagnose me with MS. I have read on here and watched many videos on you tube about ms and the people that it has effected. My experiences and symptoms seem to go hand n hand with many women that I read about. Dizziness, blurred vision and so on. My doc just told me two weeks ago that he is pretty sure that I have MS (9 lesions in brain scan) but that he wont diagnose it until at least 6 more months go by and another MRI is done. I am getting worse everyday now that it is getting hot outside. Last summer I could hardly walk from the coutch to the bed without help. My husband called and yelled at the doc and called him a coward and now he is saying that he might be able to start me on LDN to stop or calm down some of the symptoms.
My question is if you were back at the start of all of this (in my shoes) and you could do it all over, what would you ask the doc to do first. What should I do? I am trying to get into a MS specialist soon but I am waiting for them to call me with an apt time. So for now I am stuck with this guy. Should I start on LDN or should I go another rout? I hope this is not an annoying "new guy" thread, but I don't know who else to ask and the info on MS and all the treatments is overwhelming and I feel if I don't do something soon that in a few weeks I will be in bed for the rest of the summer like last year. Please help me. Thank you.

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:05 am
by munchkin
Hi Achambers

I can't really give you any advice about LDN or what to do. You are in a very good forum with some very knowledgeable and helpful people. I am sorry to hear that you are suffering so much without much help from you Dr.

I take baby aspirin which helps a little with my fatigue; beyond steroids for a quick shock to the immune system (which doesn't always do anything) to settle it down I'm not sure what can be done quickly. There is a lot of information about natural ways of helping your body but some of those take a lot of time to work.

There is some information about beets and their ability to get oxygen into the brain (I believe this is what the study was referring to, but I do have some cognitive issues - short term memory so don't quote me on this). This is pretty easy to do and fairly quick acting to from my understanding. You drink beetroot juice - I have heard up to 8 oz a day. This increases energy and I think it probably helps in a lot of other ways.
http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/2010110 ... -for-brain

I hope things settle down for you and if you have A/C in your home put it to good use this summer.

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:01 am
by tzootsi
There is lots you can do. LDN is a good start - helps some, not all. Pretty harmless stuff however. Diet modifications can be very beneficial. Have you looked at direct-ms.com, the MS Recovery Diet, and Terry Wahls websites?
Of course the elephant in the room these days is CCSVI treatment. Very beneficial to many, quite safe (provided you don't get stents). The beauty is that you can follow all 3 of these paths at the same time.

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:14 am
by Achambers
Thanks for the tips. I have been looking into diets that help MS. I have found that I am not as healthy of an eater as I had thought. I am not in any way overweight or anything but I am ready to make whatever changes necessary. I ordered the Swank diet book the other day and am going to give that a read. I am going to be killing some beets in the next few days and drinking some beet juice (sounds yummy..) I guess it cant hurt. Thank you guys for the info. Yes I have also been reading about the CCSVI treatment but I think that I will have to wait until I can get a real diagnosis. It sucks because everything I read points me toward MS....and trust me I was looking for any other reason that I could think of. I also have random pains in my abdomen that nobody seems to be able to diagnose that I think is related to MS. I'm a mess but I am just trying to focus on what I can control right now. One thing at a time.

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 10:33 am
by Loriyas
It sounds like you are in the middle of a flare-up. Why won't the doc prescribe steroids to get everything to settle down? That is the first thing I would insist upon. Once things stabilze you can then look at your options on how you want to proceed. If I had to do it all over again (since you asked) I would have started on antibiotic therapy sooner. The data appears,at least right now, the earlier a patient starts on antibiotics the more success he/she experiences. My opinion is because there is less permanent damage. Just my 2 cents!

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 10:41 am
by Achambers
Thanks for the info! I just got an appointment scheduled with a ms specialist on the 29th. I can't wait to go. I just hope he will agree to start me on something since my last neurologist keeps telling me to wait for 6 more months. It's ridiculous what we have to go through to get the care we need.
Thank you again.

Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 12:44 pm
by esta
those were my firs sympoms too. 36 yrs ago, my only advice - stick to a good diet get CCSVI treatment in the nex couple of years, stay away from big pharma drugs, and yes, LDN is pretty wonderful... which is known to stop, or at least slow down progresson...........best of luck, my dear

Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 1:01 pm
by Achambers
Thank you. My husband has been doing a lot of research on the ccsvi treatment. I think that is something we will be trying to do once I'm out of the military. I hope I get to start LDN soon. Thanks.

Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 1:58 pm
by lyndacarol
A recent hypothesis expressed on this website is that MS might be a metabolic problem. LDN seems to have a positive effect on the liver.

Read the article posted by Leonard:

http://www.thisisms.com/ftopicp-167882.html#167882

I find it very interesting; I think you will too.