My Story

My story has many chapters, and honestly, it continues to evolve every single day. But since people often ask, so here’s my best attempt at putting it into words.

In 1985, I woke up one morning and couldn’t see straight. Then my balance went. Then the numbness started—from the chest down. The neurologist who diagnosed me stopped counting the lesions at 25, sent me home to get my affairs in order and told me I’d be in a wheelchair within four years. He said it like it was fact, like he was reading my future from a crystal ball. So, I did what any reasonable person would do—I fired him and found a new neurologist.

At the time, there weren’t many pharmaceutical options for MS. Copaxone was still in clinical trials, and my new neurologist—a stand-up guy who has since contributed a lot to MS research—told me the truth: drugs weren’t a great option, there wasn’t much he could do, and I should go live my life. So I did. And that was the last time I saw a neurologist—somewhere around 1987.

Through nobody’s eyes but my own.

In hindsight, I am forever grateful to this neuro because he didn’t riddle me with doubt, fear, and guilt. He didn’t play the ego card. We had honest, frank conversations from one mature thinking adult to another. His direction allowed me to explore and experience the condition of my health through nobody’s eyes but my own. All by myself, I realized the things that made me feel worse and the things that made me feel better.

Shortly after diagnosis, I began to receive phone calls from people who wanted to know what I was doing and what I recommended they do. I was in the world of corporate communications at the time, so I had few helpful recommendations, but the one that I did give over and over was “live your life.” And people were generally happy to hear that, and life continued for all of us.

What followed was a journey of discovery, resilience, and a little bit of stubbornness. I refused to accept that MS was a one-way ticket to decline. Instead, I threw myself into learning everything I could about health, healing, and how to support my body through the ups and downs. That curiosity eventually led me to naturopathic medicine – first as a patient and later as a doctor. In 2002 I opened my own clinic and since then, I’ve had the privilege of working with thousands of people, helping them move beyond their MS diagnosis and build lives that feel full, vibrant, and—most importantly—like their own.

Relapse after an all night dancing beer-fest

I lived the following 10 years without great distress—my bladder gave me some problems, I had transient numbness and tingling, and from time to time, some heaviness in the legs. I was hospitalized again in 1986 with a relapse after an all-night dancing beer-fest—dah—and for the second time, received IV steroids. My next full-blown relapse came around 1994. I was living at the beach, and I remember walking the short city block to the drugstore, sitting down on the curb every 10 steps to recover, all the while hoping my bladder would hold out. Definitely not a highlight of my life. Having said that, it was during this time that I met the incredible man who I later married—and three decades later, we are still happily together.

As time went on, big pharma came up with some interesting ideas for medications for MS, and neurologists, who had once been revered diagnosticians, were now forced into the role of clinicians—a role they have never truly excelled at. I’ve talked to many neurologists who openly agree. It also seems to me that there is generalized confusion when it comes to accurate prescribing. Some neuros aggressively push medications from the nanosecond of diagnosis (or before, in some cases), while others take a more cautious approach, believing that because the drugs are so toxic, you “shouldn’t stay on them for long.” And then there’s the interesting practice of handing the patient a mitt full of pharmaceutical marketing materials with the directive: “You decide.” Let’s just say that, as someone diagnosed with MS, the support for making a clear and decisive choice on this matter has just never been there for me.

After my second big relapse in 1986, my neurologist (another one—I was living in Germany at the time) suggested chemotherapy (now referred to as DMTs in the MS world), with this disclaimer: “By the way, you won’t be able to have babies.” Well, I was in my 20s and decided I would like to have some choice in that matter when the time came, so I declined. In a nutshell, I have always been skeptical of the long-term consequences of these meds. I decided there had to be another way.

Like you, I started to learn…

So, like you, I started to learn on my own—and wowza, what a ton of information out there! The first food-related book I read was incredibly compelling—written by a board-certified neurologist, Roy Swank. Nobody had ever told me anything about food and health before!

Shortly thereafter, I began to see my first naturopathic doctor (1994), got some great results, and the rest is history. I went back to school, earned my diploma in Naturopathic Medicine, and started seeing patients as an intern in 2001. I have held a private practice ever since. Naturopathic philosophy resonated with me from the very beginning—the concept that the body’s natural state is health, with treatment strategies focused on its restoration. By the way, my primary care provider has been my ND since 1994.

The Status-Quo is Killing us!

My first clinical ah-ha (or perhaps better said – oh oh) moment came quickly as I realized how sick our culture had become. And generally that state known as the “status quo”, was progressively deteriorating to a state of dis-ease. Nobody in the history of Canada’s “free” healthcare system has ever talked to us about disease PREVENTION, or the role that diet and lifestyle play in maintaining and RESTORING health. Naturopathic philosophy, put diet and lifestyle as the basis for care. In my daily practice (both personal and professional) diet and lifestyle are the first steps on the path to recovery. I can’t with good conscience prescribe over such powerful confounding factors. Beyond that my personal philosophy is to work with patients and their unique health condition to create a plan that is both supportive and corrective.

During the next number of years I continued to build a successful practice. I saw each of my parents to the end of their lives and one day after we had buried my mother, after I had endured the profound stress of executing her last will and selling the only home I knew outside my marriage – and all the memories that went with it, I was getting into my car and for the first time in my life I had to lift my legs to help them move. It was in that moment that I realized that I had lost sight of the most important person in my life – me.

Creating My Own Path to Recovery

Since that time I have worked hard to create my own path to recovery. Because I know I can. Because I know I am able and because I know that the best and most current science supports it. It’s not easy, I am after all a chronic Type A personality. Some days it seems that my path is two steps forward and one (or two, or three) steps back. But I know what needs to be done, and I have to keep encouraging myself in a compassionate way. Some of the hi/lowlights of the past five years have included the beginning of a dedicated meditation practice which got me through a profound time of anxiety and depression around my mother’s death; CCSVI treatment which I had no expectations of as I had already been diagnosed for 25 years by the time I had it – AND which gave me many gifts including my sense of balance! After over a decade of bouncing off walls, and walking with sticks just to stay upright I was able to stand and move on my own. Alas, my overachiever personality kicked in and I sustained a series of injuries – a traumatic crush injury to my leg, knee surgery a broken foot, and two serious foot sprains that kept me non-weight bearing for much of the past 3+ years. That brings me to today.

Today I am continue to see patients in private practice, and also work on different educational efforts through Transform MS, which is a way that we can all learn, experience and really live with MS. I am currently using a scooter, which allows me to focus on regaining my mobility in a healthy way. I work out 4-6x per week and am fascinated at how the body responds even after years of disability. Patience is my new friend.

Looking forward…

I do what I do because I love it. I love rolling my sleeves up and working with people who have made it their priority to educate themselves, to make changes and understand that recovery is a process. I am inspired every day by people on this journey who take control of their health and put the effort in to get results. That’s what I look forward to, helping people achieve a new understanding of health and healing.

In the bigger picture, I want to reach more people. I want to provide opportunities to work together outside of the bricks and mortar of my clinical practice. And most of all I want to continue with my own recovery. The next, and potentially the best, chapters of my story are yet to be written. Join me on this path and together we can paint the future with the colours of health and recovery.

The way I see it, MS is not a sentence—it’s an invitation. An invitation to get curious about your body, to challenge the outdated narratives, and to take an active role in shaping your health. If you’re here, I have a feeling you’re ready for that. Welcome.