Mysteries

I heard today, for the first time, of a co-worker's MS adventure. She's apparently somewhere far away doing some sort of experimental procedure where they remove some stem cells, chemo the bejeesus out of her to kill pretty much everything except her, then they pump her stem cells back... all in the hopes of making the magical stem cells arrest the MS process. They of course can't cure it or undo it... they just hope to stop it from getting worse. (That was the story I heard, whether that's medically accurate or not I don't know, but that's the story.) I also heard that she's not enjoying this experience at all, and that doesn't even begin to describe what she's going through.

I pretty much stopped the rapid MS progression by cutting out dairy, 100%. Made a couple other trivial dietary changes; I take some funny tasting herbs that have no side effects--none. Ever. And while the MS Road is not always an easy one, I gotta say, quality of life? That, I still got.

So yeah, the walking has stopped degrading as quickly as it had, but I'm still pretty unsteady on my feet. One of my legs is actually starting to report its situation as "numb" rather than "dunno quite what's happening," my vision is definitely acting screwy (eye-positioning muscles not interfacing with current prescription, no optic neuritis), other things are malfunctioning in a "they used to be working a lot better" manner.

Then again, I'm also aging. Some of these things are natural consequences of that, too, and there's no going around that right now, either.

I have wonderful, profound conversations with my students, and when I'm lucky to see friends, I have marvelous moments with them. I've had moments with all those who are close to me that were more transformative and more wonderful than almost everything else I've had pre-MS. The MS Road has transformed my life in absolutely miraculous and wonderful ways.

And I walk funny, I need a walker, my eye muscles are working screwy, and some of the plumbing doesn't work so well any more. Was that the price of the miracles I so enjoy? Or the catalyst?

MS may also stand for Many mysterieS...