Had stem cells 6 Dec 2011
I had had benefits from stem cells and been able to exercise (see previous blogs), yet recently I was having headaches and little sleep and feeling worse and worse, to the point I had to stop exercising. My balance was much worse and I fell. It was a dilemma for me, how could this be? It didn't seem to be progression exactly. But I was undeniably worse.
I stayed in bed a full day. It came to me that though I had recently done an elimination test on my supplements, I had since gotten a new brand of spirulina some weeks ago. And I had recently noticed that it contained minerals including iron. Last summer my ferritin was a little low so I had supplemented iron, and did badly. I was not positive it was because of the iron. But now I had iron again and was doing worse. Well, that could be the problem.
Friday 13th April I stopped taking the spirulina with iron and started taking EGCG (which is a concentrated form of the active ingredient in green tea, and chelates iron). I guess it was my lucky day.
I was in bed another day. I woke up (Sat April 14) , after more sleep than I'd been getting, without a headache. I didn't really feel good, but the absence of pain was welcome. I started exercising again lightly.
Sun April 15th I woke up without a headache and with 7 hours of sleep. Exercised twice lightly. Part of my right (weak) hand went numb while exercising but got feeling back in 2 minutes.
Mon April 16 no headache, a little light on sleep. More exercise. Worked in office 3 hours.
Tues April 17 great sleep, no headache, took a lot of ECGC to chelate iron out. But got very tired and weak. Pushed exercise anyway, 15 minutes and 10 min. Too much ECGC.
Wed April 18 headache, light sleep. Felt bad. In bed. Light hurt my eyes. Darn! I need to chelate more gently. This “get it all out at once” thing is not helping. Slow and steady is my new motto.
Thurs April 19 still a headache and light on sleep but not as bad and not all day. 10 minutes on bike.
Fri April 20 that's today. No headache, decent sleep. Yay!
So the iron in the brain theory works for me. Just as a note, in the past three years any decline has meant really bad news. So to find the real reason for any decline that wasn't “the MS is progressing” was heartening. At my peak of exercise I was at 20 min twice a day. Now I am working my way up again from being in bed. Now at 10 min once a day.