Return To Health (Pando Health Groups)

Here is a great interview with a doc who has been doing the Liberation Procedure: Dr. Sclafani Thank you Rusty!!

It's SUNday. A beautiful day here in San Diego with the sun pouring out its healing energy. I feel so lucky to get to live where the sun shines so much. When I lived in Cleveland (first 27 years of my life) I would get depressed over the last few months of each LONG winter. I would crave sun intensely. I would go to Florida for spring break with an absolute drive for the sun, its warmth and light. Once when a close friend and I went on a spring break drive south, we ended up fighting in a hotel room when the sky refused to reveal the sun and rain was our constant companion. I still go a bit crazy here during "June Gloom". I feel for my northern US and Canadian and other "latitudinally challenged" comrades with MS who face a definite challenge finding the healing light of the sun. Sun is really important in MS. Vitamin D(the nutrient we associate with sunshine) is really helpful in MS patients as well as many health conditions. There is really good research suppo...

Well, it turns out there is a ton of information on the internet about remyelination. Amazing. I have never read about it. I realize how much I kept the "pillow over my head" in my 10 year-plus struggle with MS. I want to promote remyelination and healing in my brain. They say there are people who remyelinate better than others. Sounds like the disability level is dependent on this ongoing balance between demyelination and remyelination. I feel like I have stopped the destruction but now need to stimulate the healing (remyelination). I eat pretty well although far from perfect. I like a lot of the good foods -- salmon, blueberries, walnuts, beans, fruit. I get sun whenever I can (lucky here in San Diego). I take extra vitamin D. What else?? Please tell me anyone wise in the process.

It has been 29 days since I was fortunate enough to have the Liberation Procedure. In many ways my life is infinitely better. I walk freely and fast; I look forward to taking my dogs for a walk rather than looking at it as a chore. I have energy. That is the biggest change. Exhaustion is not my natural state anymore. I used to fight the tiredness so much; it was such a big part of my life. Weekends were absolutely devoted to rest and recuperation. I usually needed to find some way to get energy injected into me by massage or acupuncture. Now, I am truly free to do the things I love and want to do. I have more patience than I used to have. My moods are less intense and my crabbiness much easier to hold at bay. Grace is the true judge of these and she feels the difference. Life is not smooth by any means for me but I can tolerate much more. I have always been defensive and irritable and I tend toward these much less. It is so pleasurable to move around and I have the energy to do it. I ...

I was talking to a patient about her healing. Could she heal? What would it mean to heal? Can you heal if your body does not? These are difficult questions that have no easy answer. It all goes back to the question "what does it mean to be well; to be healthy". Can you be well even if you have a medical condition? Can you be well if you are dying? I would say yes you can. I would say that health and well-being are independent of one's medical history or "disease-state". Health, to me, is more of an approach to life than a state of the body; an ability to be open to the world and all its manifestations. When we shut down physically, emotionally or spiritually, we stop the flow of life from running through our body. This often happens in the face of illness, pain or some sort of suffering. Some degree of these are present and our interface with our world stops. We get cut off(or we cut ourselves off) from the "fruits" of our existence -- the interpersona...

A new week gets ready to begin. My body is my friend again after a decade long battle. I have energy. I have some endurance and definitely more resilience. My spirits are in such a better place it is hard to describe. I feel like I can have a future. I want to have a future. I want to be a healer. I was before and I am preparing myself to do it again--only better. I have lots of angst over the logistics but not about the real work. My personal health challenge has made me more sensitive to the difficult path people travel on their route to getting well. I am ready to accompany people on that journey.

My friend Richard died yesterday. I just got the news tonight. Richard was my rugby buddy. We played for the Cleveland Rugby Club for my 5 years of medical school. We loved rugby and we loved it together. We loved to run -- after practice, in the games, and getting fit again after a long Cleveland winter. We worked hard. We were competitive with each other but way more so in games. We loved the challenge --the steeper hills, the worst weather, the less people on the field(sevens was better than 15's); it all made for great fun. Tonight I went for my evening walk with my friend Michael. We explored a new neighborhood(a hilly one) and we walked fast. I didn't feel good at the start but we went up the hills anyway. I was tired, working hard. We came home along the bluffs in Del Mar and I ran !! Not far, not fast but I ran. I felt like I was running with Richard. I remembered our workouts, our time together. We loved to run and we ran tonight again. I am so happy to have had that ...

Tonight after work, I went for a walk with my dogs. The weather had changed and it was blustery. The first half of the walk was against the wind. It felt good. The way back was with a strong wind. It felt incredible! I have not moved that fast in years. I wasn't running but I was striding like I haven't in what feels like a decade. It was nearly effortless. I wasn't out of breath; it was easy. I haven't felt ease in a VERY LONG time but I did tonight. I have been walking once or often twice a day with my dogs. My energy is really good. I only drink 1 cup of coffee a day(used to need 2-3 with a diet coke at lunch). I am working more without any of the exhaustion. Today is my 3 week anniversary since the Liberation Procedure. I do feel like I have been liberated. I have a different body. I have energy -- that is the biggest change. It really feels good to be able to walk without intense focus. I can relax. I can let the wind push me and feel light. That is what I have n...

I have been feeling so positive since my Liberation Procedure that I feel a bit like "those people" who say everything is great even when they are not. Mr and Mrs Positive. I certainly have NOT been like this during my time with MS. I do try to stay positive and not be a whiner but I often come off more than a bit negative. I can be cynical and sarcastic. Since my Liberation Procedure, I have had a fun ride. However, I hit the wall the last 2 days. I have stopped one of my sleep medicines (Ativan) and had been sleeping well until the last 2 nights. I am more than a bit anxious over starting new work which is, exciting, challenging, and truly what I have wanted. I am not too flexible and relaxed in the face of change and I have been quite "wigged out" about computers, new co-workers, and general fear of the unknown. I felt very out of control. I slept poorly (if at all) the last 2 nights and subsequently, I did not feel good in my body or my mind getting up and goin...

I was just reading on the internet about CCSVI in other countries: Australia, England, Bulgaria, Poland, Italy. There is a lot happening. The US is way behind. It is very fun to read about the paradigm shift; the opening. It is very real and all around us. For me as a doctor, I am excited to see a new perspective. I like research and believe in evidence-based medicine. I also have seen the management and approach to many major major illnesses be transformed and re-organized. The management of coronary artery disease(CAD) has changed drastically during my 20 years in medicine. As a result, people live longer and better. Cancer has become a chronic disease in most cases. Only 20 years ago, people suffered much more and lived much shorter. These have not been small changes in treatment but radical revolutions in the way we saw the disease as scientists and the way we approached the diseases as clinicians. Medical science is the backbone of clinical care. Only eighty years ago, there were ...

Wow, the information available on CCSVI on the internet is truly amazing! I have to admit: I did not research this topic as well as I could have. I did not read the study from Poland before my procedure. I did not realize all the excitement combined with incredible knowledge that is coming out of Georgetown. I am just reading them now and I can hardly contain myself. There is so much data available on CCSVI from around the world. I acted more on a deep gut feeling that CCSVI was real and was my path to healing. I was a little desperate as I felt myself sliding over the last year and didn't feel right with the auto-immune drugs. CCSVI just made sense to me; really good sense. Now reading the data, I am so excited for huge numbers of people to get healed/opened/freed! After doing a little research, it seems that nearly all people with definite MS have CCSVI. It also seems that people with MS who have the procedure have less flairs over time and a better quality of life. Some get a lo...

I was so wrong about insurance coverage for the liberation procedure. First, I learned that ultrasound is as good or better than MRI and way cheaper. Second, people are getting insurance coverage for the procedure and the diagnostic ultrasounds. Wow, that is SOOOO great! The analogy was treating the problem as blocked veins; if your legs have blocked veins, insurance covers opening them. Blocked veins from the brain are just more blocked veins. Now the movement can really get some momentum. Let the games begin! I continue to feel good. Sometimes really good and sometimes just good. I am so lucky. I had my first dream this morning. I really liked that. I think that is my first dream in over a year. I can move a little more freely; I am a little bit more flexible. It is subtle but there are definite changes. My feet are more flat on the ground--I feel sturdier. My hip doesn't hurt and I walk faster.I still get tired a lot and quite easily but can do more and more. When I'm tired...

It has been truly inspiring to hear peoples stories when dealing with health challenges like MS. There is a movement going on and it has a strong current. When you believe in something strongly there is a force behind it. When you come from a place of struggle and suffering, it makes you that much more hungry.I feel blessed to be part of what I believe to be a great time for medicine-- a new window into an old, murky view. I had just started practicing internal medicine when Hpylori was discovered and the medical world's view of peptic ulcer disease changed. The transition into a new world view did not happen quickly. This current new movement(The Venous Theory of MS) seems bigger maybe because it is very personal to me. I want it to happen -- I needed it to happen. In 1995, I had a patient who I cured with antibiotic treatment for chronic peptic ulcer disease which she had had recurrently through her whole adult life. We are still friends 15 years later even though I am no longer ...

Tonight, I took my dogs for a walk as per our usual. My dogs were even surprised at my pace. I felt good. I was going faster than I have in years. I was pooped when we got home but who cares; I was moving. Maybe two miles. It was a great walk for me and that was after work. I'm usually only good for a 1/2 mile at most after work. I got an email after my walk from Nicole(a person who had read my blog). She said she just got "liberated" last week at a place on the east coast. She is feeling steadily better. Just like me--not overnight, not instantaneous but slow, steady progress. The movement is happening!! People with MS are getting well. BRING IT ON!!

MS Awareness week begins tomorrow. What does this mean exactly?? I very much want people to be aware of this condition but I want SO much more than awareness. I know first hand the suffering that this strange condition brings both to people who have it as well as those people who support the afflicted. I know how much my illness and struggle has affected my wife. She has born the brunt of so much of my frustration and anger over my decline. She has stayed with me but it has taken its toll on her. The erraticness of my moods and the irritability which I hold inside me(and frequently let out inappropriately) has been an ongoing challenge for her to endure. It has helped her immensely that I have come out of my denial of my condition and become proactive in trying to get better. She can finally not walk on eggshells around me and can receive support from others because I have now chosen to be open about my struggles. I have spoken and written with many who struggle from this disease sinc...

Wow! I have now been reading some of what has been written about the Liberation Procedure and the amazing results from the Zamboni trial in Italy. See: http://liberation-treatment.com/liberation-treatment/doctors. It is so fun to hear people with MS talking excitedly about their lives, bodies, energy, and emotions after the procedure. I so much want people in the US and Canada and everywhere in the world to have access to this new diagnostic and therapeutic approach. I feel people's frustrations being rejected by the medical establishment. The standard medical world can be very stiff and inflexible when it doesn't see eye-to-eye with an approach. I know this all too well from working in the "system". However, The system does acknowledge, act on, and support things that work. I guess I still have faith in the medical establishment. The system supports technology and intervention. The Liberation Procedure requires both. I think (and truly hope) modern medicine will emb...

It has now been 9 days since I had the Liberation Procedure. I slept hard and long last night with less medicine than I've taken in 3 months. Still no dreams. I still feel "something" in my right neck that didn't used to be there but I become less aware of it every day. I am back swimming in a pool. I wear a mask and snorkel so I don't turn my neck. It is a bit embarassing swimming in a 15 yard pool with a mask and snorkel but... It feels so good to be back in the water! Last night was the first Friday(end of work week) that I have had energy in years. I couldn't believe that I wasn't tired and wanting to be home laying down. I still did come home, eat and watch a movie but the point is there was ENERGY. Overall it feels good. It just feels goods to be going forward instead of backward.MS(and probably all "degenerative" conditions) share a feeling of going down hill or backwards. When that becomes the predominant feeling, I don't think one c...

I have dwelled on "my energy" depletion and my emotions so much that I have forgotten to talk about my body. No, I'm not running yet but the biggest change I notice is that I am focusing on my body, my gait, my discomfort less! I have times of walking that I am not obsessing about my "imbalance", my "out-of-whackedness", my lameness. I have times of not thinking about my ambulation. I just walk. My discomfort is less in my hip so my mind doesn't go there. I don't fear falling, leaning to one side, or clumsiness quite as much. I am not flowing but I am way closer and it feels good.

As I continue to improve albeit slowly, day-by-day, steadily; my thoughts come back to where they usually do -- how can I help people like me, people struggling with MS, people in general. Our medical world is so deeply wounded, it sometimes seems as there is no way out, no way to healing, no better path. However, I have now seen that I can get better; I am healing; the medical world did help me when I opened to its vast power. First, I am going to explore my path and then I will look at helping others. I have spent so much of my adult life being frustrated and angry. There seemed to always be good reasons -- work did not fit my value system; my body was betraying me; my wife did not behave like I wanted. I feel very different now. My heart is open again. I see the world differently -- less cynically, less critically. The world is what it is; people are who they are. Money,autonomy, and comfort are very human goals and humans will always be attracted to these. In spite of this, there i...

Wow.I awoke today feeling better again. I did not sleep well due to anxiety over my new work ventures. However, I feel generally good--strong in a way I have not in many years. I have more energy, more zest and my gait is smoother. I had been truly hobbling for months. I have been "super-aware" of a lack of flow in my gait for years but the last few months were worse. I had pain in my left hip and was visibly "lame" for about 4 months. I knew I was deteriorating over this time but I could not stop it. I figured it was MS but it was just more of the same. I was working with a chiropracter to "adjust" my neck and spine but I continued to slide. I still resisted the standard approaches for MS because I was just too stubborn to try something I did not believe in. I was taking meds for sleep (still am) because I truly "lost" the ability to sleep. Even when I was not anxious, I never slept or dreamt. So, I turned to meds. Remeron helped in the fall. I ...