HOPE 4 MS

Helpful Options & Positive Energy 4 those affected by Multiple Sclerosis

May 5, 2007 Meeting Newsletter

Spring, a time of new beginnings…

Our meeting Saturday March 5th turned out to be a fun, informative & innovative meeting. The meeting began at 10:00 with two round table discussions; one for MSers and one for caregivers.

Mike Solzman led the caregivers group in a separate room than the usual and from all reports had a fantastic meeting. From where we were in the large room we could just hear a steady flow of chatter and laughter which said that this was a good meeting. Actually, in thinking about it, the caregivers are usually pretty silent at our meetings so this communication is obviously a good thing. For now, maybe the rest of us are just fine not knowing what issues they discussed. We know they have their own challenges relating to MS and can relate to each other in their own comfortable, private setting. Mike will have another breakout group next month & we encourage everyone to attend!

The rest of us spent a few minutes hearing some good travel stories…..Beth on Mexico, Robyn on Las Vegas & David on Ireland. All had good times & stories to go with those times. 1) Robyn brought up that while in Vegas she rented a motorized scooter from her hotel and was able to really get around well without the usual fatigue that comes from exertion. Other than that, she said that whatever else happened in Vegas had to stay there…hmmm. 2) Beth had her annual extended stay in San Felipe with friends who get together and go on desert runs in their sand rails, socialize, share meals & relax. Her few scares involved rattlesnakes & coyotes…hmmm… but she still had a good time. 3) David traveled all over Ireland, one of his favorite vacation spots, with his daughter & some friends. He talked of beautiful country, the dollar exchange rate currently making many things a bit pricey but well worth the long airline trip.

We then discussed many subjects including one that has been coming up often lately which is the ability of our brains to re-route our faulty nerve conduction. It seems that most of us have been saying “That’s great but how do we do that?” Well, we have several people who have been going to see Dr. Keri Barnes, a neurological chiropractor in Anderson who views your MRI to identify lesion spots and then has some state of the art equipment that tracks your balance and then gives you very easy home exercises to help correct this imbalance. It is worth mentioning because we saw Donna Solzman walking with just minor assistance at times rather than in her usual scooter. She feels very positive about what is happening. As another example, we have someone else who has gone to see Keri Barnes & when asked to stand up straight her testing showed that she was leaning way to the left so she is exercising re-direct her brain & muscles to correct this imbalance. Very interesting stuff & worth watching.

Another phenomenal improvement we saw was in Doug Crawford. Many of you may remember Doug who had really struggled and gone downhill fast, tried many therapies including chemo for a long time & was bedridden often. Doug was at the meeting with only a foot appliance & a cane and walking around better than most of us! For him, the catalyst was Tysabri which has almost completely turned him around. This just tells us that everyone is different and that different things work for different people. Another thing it shows is that if one thing isn’t working, keep trying because we are seeing people finding triggers bringing them back partially from some pretty far places.

That was just our first hour and at 11:00 we brought the two groups together and played bingo! We had such a good time and almost everyone won a prize. It was decided that we will definitely do this again.

Stay tuned for information about our next meeting June 2, 2007. We hope to see you there.

Until next time,

Patricia, Beth & Robin

Helpful Options & Positive Energy 4 those affected by Multiple Sclerosis

May 5, 2007 Meeting Newsletter

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