Adventures In Acupuncture IX

Could it be THAT simple?

It seems almost too easy, yet intuitively true.  It also answers some nagging questions I've had in my own research.  But first, a little review...

I was diagnosed with MS about 2 1/2 years ago after going completely blind in a matter of minutes, while feeling like I had a severe flu (energy crashed, joint pain, etc.).  Since then, I've been on a mission to figure out what happened and more specifically, what can be done to fix it?

In short, multiple sclerosis is defined as a neurological problem, where the body's immune system attacks the myelin sheath (insulation) on the nerves, causing plaques that more or less short-circuit the electrical signals.  This, in turn, causes all sorts of problems with muscle cramps, sensory loss, 'pins and needles' sensations, loss of balance/vision/hearing, cognitive dysfunction, and the list goes on.

Research shows that MS primarily affects northern Europeans, with a slightly higher occurrence in women than men.  First major symptoms tend to cluster around the age of 40, or so, though in many cases, lesser symptoms may show up beginning shortly after puberty.  It is not known what causes MS or triggers the first attacks.  There is evidence that supports both genetic and environmental causes.  There is no generally accepted cure and only a few treatments to control symptoms.

I was not interested in controlling symptoms.  I wanted to get at the cause and remediate the damage already done.  I was focused on nerve damage and the immune system, which is why I chose acupuncture, as a means to stimulate the nerves and reduce the various pains from that problem.  I also began a program of vitamins and supplements, in conjunction with dietary modification.  I cut out all MSG and carefully noted any positive or negative changes when I ate certain foods.

I noted that very spicy foods and overheating in the sun caused an increase in cloudiness in my vision.  Eating cassava root caused a major decline in brightness.  Both of these things lasted up to 24 hours, then subsided.

I began acupuncture, and this column, to test the modality for effective relief.  I found that it did increase my color vision and brightness, but played hell with my focus.  I definitely relieved muscle spasms, pins and needles, balance issues, sinus problems, and various other complaints related to neuro-muscular problems.  It was very effective to a point, but then it leveled off, and it certainly wasn't a cure.  For the neuro-muscular problems, reflexology massage is a helpful adjunct to acupuncture.  It offers a number of benefits that enhance what acupuncture has to offer.

Dr. Paolo Zamboni

All of this was helping manage the symptoms without nasty pharmacological pill-popping, and a lot cheaper, too.  But, it wasn't getting to the root cause.  That's when one of my readers, Larry, sent in a link to a story about Dr. Paulo Zamboni, who is having some remarkable success in treating folks with MS.


Zamboni's wife was stricken with MS and it prompted him to research the issue, looking for a cure.  That 73% of his patients are symptom-free after two years argues that he found at least part of the answer.


Zamboni reasoned that MS was caused by poor circulation in the brain, which was itself a result of blockage in certain veins caused by excessive iron in the blood.  Seems that excess iron causes a large number of free radicals to be produced in the body.  In turn, that oxidizes cholesterol in the blood, which makes it 'sticky'.  The sticky cholesterol binds to the walls of veins and arteries, causing plaques that cause strokes, heart disease and dozens of other problems.


Zamboni performs a simple angioplasy, and POOF!  Symptoms go away.


Well, that sparked a whole line of inquiry for me.  It resonated with something a friend had told me years ago, that a lot of Celtic folks get non-rheumatoid arthritis because of high iron content in the blood.  Seems the Celtic race doesn't have a way to easily get rid of excess iron, which builds up in the body and leads to arthritis, cancer, stroke, heart disease, and a dozen other health problems.


Here's where the eureka moment came in.  Too much iron is called hemochromatosis.  It's an actual disease, and it's hereditary, but it has environmental triggers.  It usually strikes in middle age  I causes all sorts of problems, including cancer, heart disease, arthritis, and so on.


What Zamboni figured out was that high iron in the brain from bad drainage was causing small tears in the arteries and veins that were allowing the immune cells to escape and start gnawing on the nerves.  By opening up the veins from the brain, he improved circulation, the arterial walls healed and the nerves were able to start repairing.


If we put multiple sclerosis and hemochromatosis side by side, the common factor seems to be too much iron in the blood.  They both have elements of genetic and environmental causes.  They both affect multiple systems in the body.  They both favor northern Europeans, and they both have onset of major symptoms in middle age.  The only difference seems to be that hemochromatosis favors men, and multiple sclerosis favors women.  Could it be that the symptomology varies by gender?


So, this opens up a simple blood test that will tell me the next step.  I just need to check the iron levels in my blood. If they are elevated, then I could be on to something here.  The only problem is there's no pill or supplement or treatment to get rid of the excess iron.  The best and, really, the only way to bring it down to normal is positively medieval.  Blood-letting.


Forturnately, there's a modern form of blood-letting that is not only more sterile, but uses the resulting blood to save other lives.  It's called donating blood, and I can do that once every couple of months.


Unfortunately, I need to also cut back on high iron foods in my diet, and eliminate supplements that have iron in them.  In fact, the only supplement that the literature talks about for this condition are strong anti-oxidants.  Seems all that iron is a major cause of free radicals in the body, which is where all the other health problems come from.

Celtic Warrior

The supplements don't bother me, but cutting out steak, dark green leafy vegetables, pork, and pate de fois gras puts a pretty massive hole in my comfort foods.  The other problem is cutting out soy, which in Asia is all but impossible. Hell, just the MSG problem keeps me running in circles.


At any rate, I have a new course of action, in addition to Dr. Cigarettes (see AIA VIII).  I'll get a blood test next week and we'll see where to go based on that.


Could all this be as simple as too much iron in the blood?  And could the solution be as elegant as donating blood and a regular basis?


Stay tuned!


This is part 9 of an on-going series of articles about the use of acupuncture in treating the effects of multiple sclerosis, especially blindness.  See Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here, Part 7 here, and Part 8 here.  The standard Western medical approach gave no hope for recovery, and the use of life-long drugs (with distasteful side-effects) offered a ‘possible’ protection from further attacks.

Adventures In Acupuncture VII

This is part 7 of an on-going series of articles about the use of acupuncture in treating the effects of multiple sclerosis, especially blindness.  See Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, part 4 here, Part 5 here, and Part 6 here.  The standard Western medical approach gave no hope for recovery, and the use of life-long drugs (with distasteful side-effects) offered a ‘possible’ protection from further attacks.

Well, we're back again.  Last week, I knocked the LFS Mombo offline trying to setup a W7 network.  I actually had to get a new netbook just to stay in touch, while I was poking and prodding around in the network settings.  I discovered that it's damned hard to change WPA2 keys, once you've established them.  At least it is for blind caveman who are adapting to the 21st century.  But, that's another column...

At any rate, I want to thank all the readers who have been sending in scads of information on alternative medicine and MS.  It's been very helpful, provided hours of research material and given me some new leads.  I'll share some of it further down the page.

To catch everyone up, I went stark, raving blind a couple of years ago, due to previously unknown MS.  The attack felt like the onset of severe flu.  My energy level and strength dropped precipitously, such that I had to lie down.  Within five minutes, my vision started to get overexposed, and over 24 hours, went completely black.  Blood tests showed only a slight elevation in uric acid, but otherwise perfectly normal.  Heart rate and BP were, as always for me, textbook normal.

I spent a month on IV and oral prednisone, which restored about 75% of my vision, save for the inside half of my right eye, which has been completely offline since then.

Over the intervening time, my color vision slowly faded and my ability to focus at a distance was going fast.  In addition, I lost sensation in the tops of my feet and the middle three toes on both feet.  There were random muscle spasms and intermittent burning sensations in my lower legs.  Occasionally, my right arm would lose strength and I've had bad tinnitus in my right ear.  In all, the right side appears to be worse than the left, and I am left-dominant for things like writing and drawing, though I'm ambidexterous in many other things, such as throwing a ball or playing golf.

The standard western approach to my condition was to offer a life-time of expensive pill-popping with nasty side-effects that wouldn't cure or restore, and only offered the possibility of no further attacks.

I waved that off, needless to say.  I wasn't willing to give up conjugal gymnastics for a "maybe."

My wife, being the head of a large vitamin and supplement distributor here, makes sure that I rattle every morning on the way to the office.  She also pumps me full of fesh-made carrot and fruit juice every morning and makes sure that I don't get into an MSG, aspertame or cassava root, which is very popular in these parts.  Those things have rather dramatic effects on me vision, which I discovered by trial and error.  It takes about 24 hours to clean my system and return to 'normal' if I happen to ingest them.  In fact, the cassava (known as singkong locally) causes everything to look like the stained-glass effect in PhotoShop.  The other two just case things to get very dark.

Given this background, I proceeded to investigate herbal and other non-traditional (read pharma) treaments and remedies.  For instance, I found that a certain home remedy, known generally as jamu, helped the burning sensation in my legs and feet.


Jamu refers to any number of local herbals for different ailments.  It's generally sold by women who carry a large basket of bottles on their backs, with a variety of extracts, such as mustard and cinnamon and menthol.  You tell them what you want, and they whip up a concoction mixed with hot water that you drink.

By now, you have the idea that I'm willing to try just about anything once.

Before I get into acupuncture, I'll tell you why I chose it.  Our nerves have a fatty insulation on them called myellin.  For some reason, no one knows why for sure, the body's immune system suddenly turns on the myellin and eats holes in it.  This has the twin effect of shorting out parts of the nerve and leaving 'plaques' or 'sclera' that block signals from passing.  In the early stages, the effects are most noticeable in the senses, because they are the most sensitive.  However, later on, many people become wheelchair- or bed-bound, as the motor nerves slowly deteriorate.  Many folks have a lot of pain, such as cramping in the lower back and legs, as well as other unpleasant and annoying problems.

MS is poorly understood.  Many folks who have it, also have a genetic marker on the sixth chromosome, and there is evident of familial preference.  But, it doesn't appear to be a genetic trigger that sets it off.  There's some speculation about various environmental triggers, a lot of which centers around the many herpes viri. Most research shows a probable mix of genetic pre-disposition and environmental trigger.

This led me to look at herpes zoster, a very common virus and one that most people have.  It's the cause of chicken pox, and can also cause things like shingles.  When you get chicken pox, you never get rid of the virus.  It lies dormant (in most people) around nerve endings.  For the most part, people don't ever deal with it after the initial infection.  However, some develop shingles, which break out on a periodic basis.

My theory, and I stess this is my theory, is that the body suddenly decides it doesn't like the virus again and attacks.  Being that the virus collects on nerve endings, it makes sense that the nerves would be damaged in the process.  Furthermore, since there's no pill-popping cure for any of the herpes viri, it makes sense that they can't fix the problem.

Thus, my approach is two-fold.  To repair or, at minimum, restore some, of the nerve damage, I chose acupuncture, since it works directly on the nervous system.  My theory is that by stimulating the nerves directly, it will encourage new connections and work-arounds to the current blocks, and possibly stimulate regeneration (theoretically possible).

The second part is to find some herbal/supplemental/voodoo that works directly on the virus.  By eliminating it, I surmise that it would prevent future attacks and deterioration.  The point being that stopping at 30% vision is better than 0%.

I have no convenient way of knowing, at this time, whether the attack on the virus itself is successful, other than waiting 10 or 15 years to see if things get worse.  On the other hand, I can readily test, both objectively and subjectively, whether my efforts to restore the nerves is successful.

I've devised tests using the SMPTE color and alignment charts for testing color, contrast and sharpness of my vision.  I also have several subjective tests for the various other effects.  Since the problems involve the senses, it is difficult to be objective without a bunch of expensive machinery.

After 14 acupuncture treatments, I can say without hesitation that it has improved my color and contrast vision.  I can see red/green again, albeit better with saturated colors.  The more subtle pastels are still lost, though I can begin to perceive a little pink and light green in my peripheral vision.  Blue/yellow is very strong, with a fair range of hues available.

The brightness of my eyes has improved.  I can see more shades of gray, which helps me with things like depth perception.  Because the inside half my right eye is blank, it plays hell with 3-D perception.  I have to use parallax error to determine distance with many things.  Having better contrast helps me see more subtle details, like stair steps or bumps in the pavement.  Going down stairs is terrifying, since they all look flat to me.  Going up isn't as bad, since the light/dark areas help me see the steps, and falling up stairs is not as fearful as falling down them.

Before treatment, I had one small area in my left central vision that was incredibly sharp, but black-and-white.  I now have several of those spots scattered across my field of view, which is quite annoying since it makes it hard to focus at a distance.  The inside half of my right eye is starting to open up.  The central focusing area is still black, but around that I can see bright light and stark contrast, as well as detect movement.

If these improvements keep up, I will go back to the eye clinic for some more specific tests to compare to the baseline a couple of years ago.

My sense of balance is improving.  Using various tests like head back-touch the nose, standing on one foot, and tip-toes, I can say that I feel more in control.  There are still times when I can stand on a solid, flat surface, though, and it still feels like it moves under me.

The tinnitus is greatly reduced.  Previously, my right ear literally screamed, while the left was a bit more subdued.  Now, the left is nearly quiet, while the right varies from low to medium, depending on stress, coffee levels, etc.  By the way, large doses of aspirin will cause ringing in your ears.  Just something to store away for later.

The leg spasms are virtually gone, as is the burning sensation.  Before starting treatment, I had many nights without sleep because the situation was annoying at best, and painful at worst.

Using course (100 grain) sandpaper, the tips of my toes were completely insensate when I started treatment.  I can now clearly feel the grit, as well as the texture of 180 grain.  Some days, I have somewhat independent movement of each toe, which means I can feel the individual digits enough to be able to isolate the muscle groups.  There is still some tingling in the tops of my feet, but not nearly what it was.

Another test is to place pressure on the fingernail of my right hand, and then try to lift my finger.  Previously, that could cause uncontrolled twitching and tremors in my right arm.  That has been reduced, and is sometimes gone altogether.

As for the treatment itself, I won't say it's painless.  Certainly, when the sin she puts the needles in, if she misses the nerve, it's like getting a shot.  If she hits the nerve, it's what she calls ngilu, which translates as "smarts," but the sensation is like a mild form of whacking your funny bone.  Also, the points on the back of my head cause shivers to run through to my finger and toe tips.  It's what the old folks say is 'someone stepping on your grave.'

It can also be fairly painful if I'm not relaxed, which ain't easy when someone is stabbing your nerves with 16 needles.  I tend to close my eyes, take a few deep breaths and try not to anticipate the stab.  Surprisingly, the ones that hurt the least are the four that go deep into my eye sockets, above and below the eye balls.  The ones in my temples hurt quite a bit if I flex my face muscles in any way, shape or form.  The ones in my ankles burn a little, but not quite what I'd call painful, unless I move my foot just right...then my skeleton tries to climb out my nose.

Side-effects?  The insertion points tend to be a bit tender, especially on weeks where I can squeeze in three treatments.  I'm supposed to rub the points several times a day, which actually has the same effect as the treatments.  If the needles touch any part of the muscles, then the electric jolts cause those muscles to jump rhythmically with the jolts.  If I am sweating, then the electric jolts short out across my skin and is rather not pleasant.  So try to be dry when you do this.  Other than that, there's not much to complain about.  In fact, one side effect is an increase in my randy-meter, which my wife finds rather enjoyable.  I'll leave it at that.

I'm still receiving the herbal poultaces once a week, though I'm not closer to understanding the ingredients than the 38th time the sin she explained it.  I can only tell you that they are about the size of a wad of chewing gum, brown and semi-flexible, and reek of eucalyptus oil.  I get eight of them on my back, six around my shoulder blades, and one each over the kidneys.  She pokes me with a needle to open the skin before taping them on.  Taking them off is the most unpleasant part of the whole ordeal, since I have a generous amount of fur back there.

Do I recommend it?  Stopping short of giving medical advice, I'll say that it is definitely worth looking into for a variety of complaints.  The folks I see at the clinic come for everything from weight loss and face lifts, to stroke and cognitive problems, and all of them claim varying degrees of success.

So...miracle cure?  No, at least not yet.  I can say that there have been both objective and subjective improvements in all areas affected.  I can say without qualification that acupuncture does have an effect and that my side-effects are minor, and some are even positive.  My basic test is, if it doesn't hurt anything, then it's 50% good.  The rest is relative.

Stay tuned...
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Here are some links to info that may be useful to those needing more.  A lot of it is relevant to any neurological problem, not just MS (deep thanks to everyone for sending in info!):

Pacific College of Oriental Medicine - Good folks and very helpful re: acupuncture
Herpes Zoster
Viral MS found in monkeys
Use of sound in healing
Various links of varying usefulness
Coconut Oil - From my buddy Harry in Bali
One reader sent some good info on ytterbium and boron use in PDF format - drop an email with the subject MS ARTICLE and I'll pass it along to you

Adventures In Acupuncture VI

This is part 6 of an on-going series of articles about the use of acupuncture in treating the effects of multiple sclerosis, especially blindness.  See Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, part 4 here, and Part 5 here.  The standard Western medical approach gave no hope for recovery, and the use of life-long drugs (with distasteful side-effects) offered a ‘possible’ protection from further attacks.

We're back!

Took a two-week break due to work and travel demands, but started up again this week with two sessions on Tuesday and Thursday.  Ideally, I'm supposed to have three sessions per week, according to the sin she, but as you read this, I am wheeling to Cerebon in central Java.

With this week, I have passed my personal milestone of 10 sessions, which other information on the net have told me is a point where things start to get interesting.  It's also different because the sin she has taken a more aggressive approach.  She's added some traditional herbal medicine, as well as turning up the amperage both literally and metaphorically.  But first, let's assess where we are at this self-imposed milestone:

• As far as unqualified success, the two treatments I had that included sinuses were, without a doubt, effective.  Within minutes of starting, my sinuses literally snapped open, my sense of smell increased, and I haven't had a problem since.
• The leg spasms have stopped and I am regaining sensation in the middle three toes of both feet, left more than right, but both improved.
• Color vision is greatly improved, with blue/yellow being the strongest, but also gaining red/green, which were both just gray before starting.
• Night vision is up and down.  Sometimes I can clearly see cars, people and details with color, sometimes just yellowish floating lights and little else beyond 10 feet or so.
• Improved brightness overall, though sometimes its similar to over-exposed film: I can see darker areas better than lighter ones.
• Peripheral vision is greatly improved, and if I cross my eyes, I can combine the best part of both eyes for greatly improved vision, however detail is very hard to perceive, given that peripheral vision doesn't pick up much in that regard.
• The inside half of my right eye, which was completely black, or dark grey to be exact, can now see high-contrast objects and movement against a contrasting background.
• Marked increase in balance, with a related improvement in gait and terrain navigation.

Overall, I'd subjectively say that I have gone from 20% normal vision to 30%, with good improvement in color perception, though still lacking in detail and clarity in my central vision.  Other than vision, there seems to be marked improvement in pain, muscle and sensory problems.

Miracle cure?  No, not yet, but I committed my self to at least 3 months worth of treatments, so the jury is still out.

Viable alternative treatment?  Yes, for some things, acupuncture appears to work quite well, while for others, the progress is somewhat more muted.

There seems to be a distinct split between sensory complaints and things like spasms.  The senses, especially vision, are very sensitive and delicate.  I didn't really expect to receive a miracle, and I am happy to have any improvement at all.  My ability to focus at a distance is greatly improved, and if my eyes were nothing more than near-sighted, I'd be willing to bet that my dependence on glasses would be reduced at this point.

Before starting, I had to hunch over my laptop to see clearly.  At this moment, I am sitting back about 3 feet from the screen, and can clearly see the text, or any other part of the screen, though I have to focus directly on an area. One of my problems has been that I couldn't clearly focus on more than a very small spot in my central vision.  To see the computer screen, I had to carefully scan the entire area and try to build a complete picture.  Without color or contrast, I had a very difficult time to find buttons and text boxes on unfamiliar websites.  That is improving, albeit slowly.

As far as the new addition of traditional herbal medicine, here's what I can tell you:

The sin she described the whole thing to me, but my vocabulary was hopelessly inadequate to catch all the specialized terminology.  Nevertheless, I consented to it, as the parts I did catch led me to believe that it is an systemic treatment for nerve problems.

The treatment consists of cotton balls dipped in a reddish-brown concoction that reeks of eucalyptus oil.  The sin she measured off 8 points on my back: two on either side of L1, two inside the lower shoulder blades, two under the shoulder blades, and two near the locations of my kidneys.  She poked a needle at each location, then taped the poultices over each.  I had to wear them for 5 hours, and then rub each spot with alcohol after removing them (you will need someone to help you, unless you are a contortionist).  

The poultices had a strange effect.  I felt somewhat disjointed from my body, as if I was floating slightly above myself, especially when I was walking.  It was somewhat disconcerting.  The effect wore off by the next day.

I was not allowed to consume anything cold, spicy or containing fish for 24 hours.  At one point, late at night, I wasn't thinking and drank some chilled water.  Within minutes I had what was like a sustained hiccough (best I can do to describe it) that caused a slight discomfort in the area of my stomach.

I haven't noticed much of anything else, in terms of effect from the herbals.  For the sake of this report, I will get more information on the contents of the treatment.  I am scheduled to receive it every Thursday going forward.  One thing I know about traditional medicines and such is that those wanting immediate and spectacular results will be disappointed.  These non-allopathic modalities are cumulative and take some time to be effective.

If I took the time to graph it out, homeopathic treatments would be a slowly rising curve over time, while allopathic modalities would rise quickly then level off with only minor increases over time.  For that reason, western medicine is unparalleled for trauma and first-aid, but is inadequate and even dangerous over time.  Another key difference is that western medicine tends to attack symptoms while forgetting to fix the underlying problem.

So while homeopathic remedies are not for those looking for quick fixes or who are in the throes of ADHD, the things I have read is that over time, the traditional route tends to repair roots causes, though often doesn't give immediate relief from symptoms.

As far as concomitant treatments, I am continuing the vitamin/mineral regimen mentioned in a previous post, with the addition two weeks ago of 1 oz. Goji berry juice each morning along with fresh carrot juice, as well as Omega-3 fish oil and ginko biloba (all standardized major-brand dosages).  Oh, and healthy doses of red wine and beer on weekends, of course.  Helps with the stress-reduction part of the treatments.

A note on the whole 'needle' thing - it's getting easier to tolerate.  There is some pain associated with them, but usually when the sin she misses the nerve and hits muscle.  When she hits the nerve, there's no pain, but a strange 'pinch' sensation, except for the two on the back of my head, which send chills completely down to my toes.  Even the four needles around my eyes don't really hurt.  If you look closely at the photo, you'll see that the needles directly under my eyes are pushed completely in, so that they are literally under my eyeballs.  The two that are placed on either side of the bridge of my nose do the same at the tops of my eyeballs.  It is somewhat uncomfortable when she mashes my eyeball up or to the side to avoid sicking the needles into my eyes, but for that, I'll suffer a bit.

The electric thumping is rather annoying at first, but if I relax and drift off, I hardly notice it after a few minutes.  It does cause a little numbness in my cheeks and lower jaw, which passes within minutes of finishing.

I'll try to get a more accurate description of the poultices and what they are supposed to be doing for my next report.  I won't have a Saturday treatment this week, so we'll pick up again on Tuesday.  I'll also be posting some resources for those suffering from MS, as well as information on alternative treatments and coverage of recent discoveries that lead to a viral cause for MS and my theories on the matter.  Can you say 'chicken pox?'

Did I mention that my insurance covers all of t1his?  All recognized traditional, herbal and alternative treatments are re-imbursable here.  Try that with Obamacare!  And I only pay $5-$10 per session, with the higher amount including the poultices.

Adventures In Acupuncture V

This is part 5 of an on-going series of articles about the use of acupuncture in treating the effects of multiple sclerosis, especially blindness.  See Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and part 4 here.  The standard Western medical approach gave no hope for recovery, and the use of life-long drugs (with distasteful side-effects) offered a ‘possible’ protection from further attacks.
This is week five of acupuncture, and I've received a total of eight treatments.  At this point, I seem to have reached a plateau, with incremental gains, but noting Earth-shattering.

The sin she has gotten more aggressive, and we are adding a third treatment each week.  Now I will be going to the clinic on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, though this coming week, I will be out of town on Saturday.

By 'aggressive,' I mean that some of it is very uncomfortable, and even downright painful.  My wife, who had been considering using acupuncture for her own complaints, has had second thoughts after watching me.  The really difficult part is that the more tense you are, the more difficult it is to insert and seat the needles correctly.  I don't particularly like needles in the first place, and having them jammed into various parts of my body and wired to a 'thumper' (what I call the battery pack that delivers current to the needles) challenges my ability to relax.

The two needles that are placed into the back of my neck, just under the base of the skull, are dug in so deep that they cause my eyelids to flutter and a 'twinge' that I can feel from head to toe.  The two that are placed on either side of the bridge of my nose are pushed in until I can feel them touching my eye balls.  The ones above the outside of my ankles are downright painful, if I move my feet at all, even to wiggle my toes.

I know what the sin she is doing, and what the theory is behind it all, which is why I chose acupuncture as a modality.  It doesn't make it any easier to tolerate, though.  But, I am receiving some benefit from it, so I will persist until my immediate commitment of three months.

You may be asking yourself, why have I chosen do submit to this?  Well, to answer that, it may be instructive to go back and look at what's wrong, and then see my reasoning.

Multiple sclerosis is an auto-immune disorder, in which the immune system suddenly decides that the myelin sheath on the nerves is an invader, and so attacks it.  Current theory is undecided as whether it is genetic or environmental.  In my studies, I have come to the conclusion that one is genetically susceptible, but there is an environmental trigger.

In my case, I have come to the conclusion that the trigger was aspertame.  I have made exhaustive lists of everything I ate and drank in the week prior to the attack.  The only thing that wasn't part of my regular diet was Mylanta, which I was taking for a particularly sour stomach.  I almost never use things like Mylanta, but I was desperate for some relief.  Listed on the ingredients is aspertame, which normally I would not eat at all, since most of what I eat is meat and vegetables that are fresh and unprocessed.

The reason I blame aspertame is because it is a powerful neuro-toxin produced by E. coli.  I am convinced that ingesting large amounts of it too quickly will cause problems for just about anyone, much less those predisposed to multiple sclerosis.  There are others, such as MSG and improperly cooked cassava root, which are both common in foods here in Indonesia, but I avoid both and I didn't have any in the week prior to my attack.  (As a side note, I have accidentally eaten cassava/singkong twice in the past couple of years, and there is a strong effect on my eyesight within 12 hours)

At any rate, after the body attacks the nerves, it leaves scars called 'sclera.'  The sclera block the signals from the nerves, and so cause various problems with the senses and motor control.  The senses are the easiest to notice, at first.  When your sight, hearing and touch are profoundly affected, there's an immediate feedback.  The motor control is a bit more insidious.  It creeps in year after year until one is bed-ridden or must use a wheelchair to get around.

Some people have particularly aggressive forms, in which they have frequent attacks and deteriorate rapidly.  Others may only have one attack, but then suffer a long, slow deterioration over many years.  The disease seems to strike primarily over-40 folks, with a preference for women, though statistically only a small number.

My attack felt like the onset of a very bad flu.  I felt extremely weak and tired, like my limbs weighed hundreds of pounds.  I laid down for no more than five minutes, and when I opened my eyes, everything appeared vastly over-exposed.  Within 24 hours, my world had gone black.  The textbook treatment is heavy doses of steroids to reduce inflammation of the nerves and restore as much as possible.  After that, the only options for treatment in Western medicine are to pop pills for the rest of your life in the hopes that they will prevent future attacks.  However, there are no guarantees, the pills are rather expensive and the side-effects are quite undesirable.  I opted not to go that route, and instead seek alternative means to control, and possibly cure, the situation.

After quite a bit of study, and a certain amount of intuitive reasoning, I decided to go with acupuncture, combined with a vitamin/mineral regimen, and various herbal supplements.  I had read a number of papers and testimonials concerning the efficacy of acupuncture in treating MS, and intuitively, stimulating the nerves seemed like a reasonable means to restoring them.  Everything I found, though, said that acupuncture worked best when combined with other modalities, which is why I have focused on the vitamins, herbs and reflexology, which is a form of non-invasive acupuncture.

With that said, I have now finished eight sessions of acupuncture.  I have noticed some rather amazing effects, though from an outside observer, it may not seem like much.

Previous to treatment, I was only able to perceive the color blue with any certainly, and even that was not very strong in my central vision.  After three or four sessions, I noticed colors starting to come back across my entire field of view.  The first one to reappear was yellow, which is the compliment to blue.  That meant that my blue cones were being re-invigorated.  Lately, the colors red and green are increasing, as well.  That implies that the red cones are turning on again, as well.  The colors are increasing across my entire field of view, and not just in the peripheral areas.  My night vision has improved the most, to the point where I can make out details and colors at night, which is a major advancement.  Previously, I could only see with any certainty for about six feet around me.  After that, all I saw was lights floating in black velvet.

I am perceiving more detail at greater distances, as well.  Things I can see sharply have moved out from about six feet to more than 20 feet.  I can see individual leaves on trees, up to a point.  I can see more detail further ahead, which makes walking much easier.

I still have problems in dynamic situations, where things are changing rapidly.  Crowds and traffic are particularly disorienting and exhausting.  I also still have problems with people's faces.  A lot of what we read from people, as far as recognition and other information, requires a lot of detail.  People that I know very well are easy, but I rely on a lot of other information, like voice, body shape, hair style, etc.  Some people are more distinct than others, as well, and that helps in some cases.  In any case, I still have a hard time reading emotions using facial characteristics, and I have to scan someone's face constantly, since I can only clearly see an eye, or the mouth, at any one time.

My sense of balance has increased and I feel more stable when walking or doing things that require a strong sense.  Carrying loads up and down stairs is one example where I have a particular problem, with regard to balance.

When it comes to acupuncture, there is a definite hyper-state immediately following treatment, which tends to stabilize over the following 24 hours.  Then there is a sort of tapering off over time after that.  The sin she wants to increase the number of treatments for that reason.  Apparently, acupuncture requires raising the activity in the nerves and keeping them in a hyperactive state in order to be most effective.  By moving to three sessions per week, she can keep the nerves at a super-active level with no more than 48 hours between treatments.

A couple of things I can highly recommend acupuncture for include sinus problems, aches and pains, and apparently weight-loss.  I have met a number of folks at the clinic who have attested to dramatic weight-loss using acupuncture.  In my own experience, I know that one treatment can cause my sinuses to literally snap open in a matter of minutes, and my sense of smell increases dramatically.  Also, if I tell the sin she about some pain (say...lower back) then she adds an extra needle or two, and the pain goes away almost immediately.  For those suffering from various chronic pains or sinus problems, I highly recommend acupuncture.  For those seeking to lose weight, you may want to investigate this further.  I can only offer what these folks have told me.

It's tempting to say that these effects are psycho-somatic, and I have gone to some effort to eliminate subjective variables, by using things like color bars and alignment charts to verify that I am actually receiving a benefit, and not just causing myself to think that I am.

And so the process continues.  I'm not really sure what the outcome will be, but I can say with some certainty that acupuncture does have an effect, and for some things it's rather dramatic and immediate.  I am seeing (pun intended) some benefit with my vision.  I somewhat of an up and down process, but more colors and greater detail are objectively proven.  Whether I will be able to drive again, or resume my work with cameras remains to be seen.  Those activities require a great amount of visual acuity.  At this point, I'm happy to walk down the street without falling in a hole.

More as things develop...

Adventures In Acupuncture IV

This is part 4 of an on-going series of articles about the use of acupuncture in treating the effects of multiple sclerosis, especially blindness.  See Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here.  The standard Western medical approach gave no hope for recovery, and the use of life-long drugs (with distasteful side-effects) offered a ‘possible’ protection from further attacks.

This week covers only one session, since I went to the farm yesterday, instead of getting a treatment.  I'll chalk it up to an adjuvant treatment, since fresh air, peace and quiet are always rejuvenating.  


At any rate, last Wednesday, I reported to the sin she that I was starting to get good color, but my central vision was still quite cloudy.  Indeed, my peripheral vision is coming back nicely, but I'm still having issues with my central vision, which is the part of the retina that actually focuses on things clearly.


Prior to treatment, I had tunnel vision.  I could see very sharply in a small area of my central vision of the left eye, but there was no color and everything around that one spot was foggy.  Then in the peripheral vision, things cleared a bit and colors were still visible, though muted.  It appears the red cones were most affected, since I have been able to see blue fairly clearly, but red has been missing, and so has green for that matter, which is a combination of red and blue.


Immediately following last Wednesday's treatment, I had rather vivid colors in the peripherals, and I was regaining colors in the central vision, as well.  I could see certain saturated reds and could detect green in trees and grass.  The green wasn't strong, but if you haven't seen it in two years, any amount is pretty startling.

Using my trusty SMPTE color bars, I could clearly see the blue and yellow bars.  The cyan was a bit weak, but I could detect it.  The red and magenta were a little more problematic, but that i could see them at all was a major milestone.  I can clearly see the green bar in my peripheral vision, but if I look directly at it, it becomes light gray again, as does the magenta.  The cyan is pale but visible in my cental vision, as is the blue.  The red is pale, but detectable.


As far as resolution, this is a mixed blessing.  I seem to be losing the tunnel vision effect, but in a way that is somewhat maddening.  Instead of one clear, sharp area in my central vision, I now have several, like balloons of clarity in a sea of fog.  As I had spent two years adjusting to the old way of seeing, which allowed me to see about half a word at a time using 12-point font at arm's length (so sharp in fact, that I could see individual pixels without my glasses).

Turning to my SMPTE alignment chart, I am able to resolve more detail overall, but it is broken up into different sectors.  If I squint just right, I can kind of blend all the sharp areas together to get a larger picture.  In the clear areas, I can easily see the smallest lines of resolution with clear separation.  In the foggy areas, they just blur together so that I can tell there are black and white lines, but I can't clearly make out the distinct lines.  In other words, it's like being out of focus so that everything kind of blurs together.


The last treatment varied from the previous ones, in that the sin she poked a needle into the nerve on the center-line at the rear of my head, and again at the base of my skull, right at C1.  She didn't leave the needles in, just poked several times, as if sensitizing the nerve.  She also put two needles on either side of the bridge of my nose just in front of the eye socket.  She also added two new ones just above each ear on the sides of my head.  In my legs, she moves the ones that had been in my feet to a point outside the shin bone about three inches below the knees.  I had the usual ones in the web between the thumb and forefinger.  


As for the electric pulse, which is always wired to the needles in my head and neck, the dose was a bit lower, but the rhythm of the pulse was much faster this time.  The session lasted about 30 minutes, as usual.


Overall, it's a bit uncomfortable, but not overly painful.  As I've explained before, I can tell when the sin she hits the nerve, because there's a sort of electric pinch feeling.  If she just hits muscle, there is a little bit of pain, which is how she knows she missed.  The ones I find most annoying are directly under my eyes and in my temples.  They are both a bit painful and annoying if any of those muscles twitch while the needles are in.  Which, of course, means that this is the time when everyone wants to ask questions.  Kind of like when the dentist has his hands in your mouth and wants to make small talk.  Smiling is especially undesirable.  


I am starting to see a pattern with acupuncture.  There is a kind of time release aspect in which the overall benefit of each session takes about 24 hours to kick in, although there is usually an immediate difference, as well.  There's also a slow fade over several days, so that it's like blowing up a balloon and then slowly letting the air out. Another way to think of it is three-steps-forward-two-back.  The baseline keeps advancing, but it's incremental with a hyper-state immediately after a session and for the following day, then a slow slide back, though not all the way back.


Some of the definite benefits so far (six treatments) are that the twitching muscles in my legs have stopped (blessedly), more color vision and across my whole field of view, brighter and less foggy vision, and increased night-vision.  The incidental complaint about stuffy sinuses was completely remedied and I have a very acute sense of smell now.  The tinnitus comes and goes, though the volume seems to be dropping a little over time.


I've added ginko biloba to my vitamin regimen, at 60 mg two times a day.  I've identified a good manufacturer of goji extract, called Master Goji, which I will start taking soon, as well.


There are a few things I must avoid.  I can not eat cassava root, called singkong locally.  I must avoid MSG, especially in large doses.  This morning, my wife bought bubur ayam, rice porridge with chicken, from one of the street vendors this morning.  It was delicious, but turns out it had loads of MSG, which is playing havoc with my eyes today.  Finally, I must avoid aspartame like the plague.  I'm convinced that aspartame was the trigger that led to the initial attack two years ago, and if I even smell the stuff, I get headaches and my eyes go dark.  That crap is banned from my house.  Wine also seems to case minor prolems, though beer and booze are OK, thank God.  Could be the sulfites.


One interesting side note: health insurance here covers acupuncture, reflexology and herbal treatment.  Guess when you are outside the influence of Big Pharma, you are allowed to take advantage of any form of health care you want.  Try that with Obamacare or any of the Euro versions of socialized health care.


Until next week, keep your needles sharp!

Adventures In Acupuncture

First, a little background...

If you're new here, or haven't read all the archived columns, then you probably don't know that I am virtually blind.  I was diagnosed two years ago with multiple sclerosis, after losing my sight entirely.

It happened one afternoon, when I had a sudden and overwhelming loss of energy, not unlike the onset of a bad flu.  I laid down for about five minutes, and when I opened my eyes, I was profoundly blind.  It was that fast.  By the next day, it had gone from white-out to completely black, except that I could detect certain high-contrast patterns in the lower part of my vision.  Strangely, light sources appeared more black that everything else, and LCD displays appeared to be glowing purple rectangles.

That began about a three month odyssey through multiple hospitals and nearly a dozen specialists.  I spent a week in the hospital (AINI here in Jakarta), where I was pumped full of powerful steroids.  After getting out, I continued on the steroids orally for another month. I had CAT scans and MRIs, only to find lesions on the optic nerves, called sclera, which were blocking the signals.

Multiple sclerosis is a degenerative disease in which the immune system, for no known reason, attacks the myellin sheath covering all the nerves in your body.  The attack leaves scar tissue, called sclera, that inhibits the nerves from tranferring information.  The disease usually hits the sensory nerves first, or at least those are the ones you notice the most.  The attack results in blindness, deafness, muscle spasms, loss of feeling in extremities, and a number of other fun things.  Eventually, it affects motor nerves and people are left in wheelchairs, unable to walk and with no sense of balance.

After six months in and out of different clinics and hospitals, I was told that there is nothing allopathic medicine can do, but offer medication that supposedly slows the progress of the disease while imparting many unsavory side effects.  Otherwise, if I had another attack, they could pump me full of steroids again and hope that I regain a little ground.

If I were living in America, that would probably be it.  Either swallow nasty pills for the rest of my life and hope I get a couple of extra years, or pray and hope.  But, I live in Asia, where there are far more options for my health care.

I started researching and using herbal treatments and vitamins, with some success here and there, but nothing stunning.  Then I came across the Pacific College of Asian Medicine, in California of all places.  They had several testimonials from people who had suffered from MS for 15 years or more, and they were jumping up and down (literally) after receiving acupuncture.  They had regained a good amount of eye-sight, sensation in their limbs and various other benefits.

Well, I thought, here I am a stone's throw from China.  Surely I can find good acupuncture here.  After asking around, the consensus was a clinic over by Old Town, not too far from my house.

So, all of this set-up is to introduce a weekly feature here on Sunday.  Today I had my first session and I intend to chronicle the progress and experience for the benefit of others who might be able to use the information.

The modality involves two hours a week in the clinic.  All of the information I have found says that it's best to combine the acupuncture with other modalities, so I am adding ginko biloba and skullcap to my vitamin regimen, which already includes vitamin C, D3, Calcium, Royal Jelly, and a good quality multi-vitamin.  By way of disclaimer, I am using the Nature's Bounty vitamins, since I know the national marketing director here in Indonesia.

I will attempt to accurately relay all benefits and side-effects that I feel.  The treatment will last about three months on Wednesday and Saturday mornings.  Each session last 30 minutes, with another 30 for set-up and clean-up.  Total cost per session is IDR 46,000 ($5.39), which includes a IDR 3,000 surcharge for using more than 8 needles.

As a starting point, I will describe the symptoms as they are now.  First, I am virtually 100% sight-loss in the right eye, and the left is something like wrapping a pair of amber Oakley's in fine gauze and smearing the center with Vaseline.  I also have no color vision in the center of field of view.  There is still some in the peripheral view of both eyes.  I have regular 'pins and needles' in my lower legs and intermittent muscle spasms in my lower legs and lower back.  There is little to no feeling at all in the middle three toes on both feet.  My ears ring almost constantly and my sense of balance is completely wonky.  On some days, and after eating certain foods, I get tremors in my hands.  Not bad, but bad enough.

After entering the clinic and registering, as usual, I was taken into the treatment area, which consisted of maybe 20 walled-off cubicles with draped entries.  The first order of business was to consult with the sin she, a small, middle-aged woman named Tjoe.  I described the symptoms, just as I did above.  She took my pulse and blood pressure, looked at my tongue and asked about appetite and bowel movements, as well as liver.  I explained I had no problems related to internal organs, just sensory and motor control.  She had never heard of multile sclerosis (it's very rare among Asians).

I was then taken to a cubicle, where I removed my shoes and laid on a padded table.  After a couple of minutes, the sin she came in and placed the needles: one on either side of the back of my neck just under the skull, one in front of each ear, one under each eye, one over each eye, one in each temple.  The placements corresponded to the locations of the primary facial nerves and the roots of the long thoracic nerves.  One needle was placed in the webbing between the thumb of forefinger of both hands.  Finally, one in the top of each foot.

The placement of the needles was somewhat uncomfortable, but not particularly painful.  I had rather interesting sensations that so far, I am at a loss to describe.  It was kind of a cross between a sever tickle and a twinge, if that makes any sense.  The ones in my hands and feet were almost unnoticed.  The one that hurt the most was the one in front of my left ear, which corresponded to a spot where I've had occasional pain for many years in the jaw joint.

At that point, the sin she left and her assistant came in.  She hooked a device to the needles in my face.  It produced electric pulses that caused my face muscles to flinch about ten times a minute.  After starting the treatment, she left and I laid there for about 30 minutes.

The sensation was slightly uncomfortable, particularly at the left jaw joint.  If I flaxed a certain muscle on that side, I got a quick jolt of pain, however, if I lay still and let my mind wander, it was almost pleasant.

I drifted off and before I knew it, the assistant had turned off the pulse device and was disconnecting the leads.  She then removed the needles and swabbed the points with alcohol, as was done when they were inserted.

When I opened my eyes, I immediately noticed that things were considerably brighter, as though more lights had been turned on.  As I got up from the table, I felt more balanced, stonger in my stance.  I had a slight headache that followed the 11th facial nerve up the left side of my face.  Strangely, I had a hard time focusing my eyes.  Things seemed blurry, or at least more than usual, even with my glasses.

I was told that when I got home, I was to rub the needle points 20 times each, and then press the heals of my hands directly in front of my ears and drum my fingers along the back of my back of my head for a few seconds, and then release quickly.

When I walked outside (my stride was much steadier), it seemed quite a bit brighter than before.  I also noticed right away that I could see the color yellow quite vividly, which I hadn't seen for two years.  I have been able to see saturated blues, but now I could discern different hues of blue.  I still can't see green at all, and I can barely see red in most cases.

By evening, my eyes were focusing again and I've been able to see details that I haven't seen before.  For example, when I looked at people's faces, they were blank except for dark spots where the eyes, nose and mouth were.  It made it quite difficult to recognize people unless they talked to me.  This evening, I can see quite a bit of detail in my wife's face and in those of my neighbors and friends, details I have never seen before.

The changes are very subtle, but if you haven't been able to see certain colors and details for two years, the small differences jump out like neon signs.  As I sit here writing, I notice that the muscle spasms in my legs have stopped, my lower back pain is gone, and the toes which haven't had any sensation for a long time feel very warm, though still a bit numb.

Because of my poor sense of balance and lack of feeling in my toes, I had developed a kind of 'old man' shuffle when I walked.  Tonight, I notice that I am walking normally and confidently, though I have the advantage of knowing my current surroundings very well.  The big test will be unfamiliar locations, which have been the most difficult for me.

I am quite impressed with the results after only one treatment.  There is still a long way to go, but I am encouraged.  The course of treatment will include one hour every Wednesday and Saturday for the next three months.  I will post results as I go every Sunday, for those who are interested.  If you or someone you know has issues with motor or neural function, then you may want to pay attention.  As I mentioned, I am combining the acupuncture with my usual vitamin regimen, plus ginko biloba and skullcap, which are recommended for brain and nerve function.  When i find a good source, i will add Goji berry, as well.

What will be most interesting to see is if alternative treatments offer hope, if not outright cures, where Western pill pushing fails.  As far as allopathic medicine, I was given no hope of recovery and only a chance of maintaining current condition through life-long pill popping.  Could it be that an ancient technique offers hope where none exists in 'modern' medicine?  Could it be that socialized medicine and Big Pharma don't want people cured, but rather addicted to life-long quackery?

Stay tuned...

To Blindly Go...

It was 4:30pm, on April 1st, 2009, at the tender age of 47 that I went stark blind.

I had just finished a class on the ground floor and was climbing the flight of stairs to go to the teacher's lounge. By the time I reached the top, I felt completely drained and a cold sweat had broken out on my forehead. My body felt disconnected. It was not unlike the onset of a severe case of the flu. When I reached the room, I laid down in the corner to get a minute's rest before the next class. I closed my eyes for five minutes, and that was the last time I saw anything clearly.

When I opened my eyes, everything looked overexposed. I could see some detail in the room, but outside the windows was a bright, gray fog with little or no detail.

I went home by taxi with an escort from the school. By 8pm, I was profoundly blind. the world was completely black with on curious artifact: light sources appeared blacker than black, and LCD and CRT monitors looked like dimly glowing purple rectangles hovering in space.

That night, I ate a hamburger and cola with some friends, which later that night I tossed all over the bedroom. I didn't feel sick, per se, but nothing seemed to stay down.

The next morning, I was at the emergency room. I received a general check-up and they took blood. A complete list of everything I had eaten and drunk for the past week was assembled. Cursory tests showed I was, indeed, blind. I could follow a flashlight, because as a light source, it appeared blacker than black. I could also detect very high contrast objects, such as a person, moving in front of a brightly lit background. No details and definition, I could just tell there was something moving in the foreground. The bloodtest showed a slightly elevated level of uric acid, but was otherwise unremarkable. My blood pressure was abnormally low, but not dangerously so.

My friends conferred and decided I needed to go to a specialized clinic, so it was on to Mata Nusantara. There were more tests, more blood. Direct imaging revealed that the core of the optic nerve was pale, as if the blood supply had been shut down. There was a point of contention: MS didn't usually attack both eyes at the same time, and methyl alcohol poisoning usually involved coma. Furthermore, it had been several days since I had drunk any alcohol, so that seemed unlikely.

On to AINI. AINI is considered the foremost eye center in Indonesia. Most tests and more consultation, with more history given. The doctor made a determination that it was MS and ordered the standard initial intervention: heavy doses of anabolic steroids. I was checked into a ward and prepped for IV. Shortly after, I began five days of high-dose steroids. My legs burned like fire and there didn't seem to be any immediate relief. I lay there, unable to read, watch TV or do anything to while away the hours, except think.

I thought about being blind for the rest of my life. I thought about having to go home. I thought about living in a foreign country with a profound handicap. I thought about the loss of my career, which was centered on my ability to see. I thought about my daughter and whether she faced the same fate due to genetics. I thought about all the things I would never see again.

I thanked God that I often stopped to smell the roses. I always enjoyed a good sun rise and sunset. I spent a lot of time just looking at things and absorbing them. I always tried to stop and enjoy a beautiful sight, a work of art, a pleasing face. i didn't regret not doing that before I lost my sight, but I regretted that I wouldn't enjoy it again.

I pictured myself padding around my mother's house for the rest of my life, needing a stick to guide me. I imagined measuring off the path to the nearest watering hole where I could pass my remaining life listening to the world go by. I tried to list all the things I could do with no sight. That one sense had been my source of income for my entire life, and now I would have to retool and rethink everything.

I was dismissed from AINI after five days and given a strict regimine of steroid pills to take several times a day. My friends brought me home to my apartment and i settled in for the long haul. It was April and my apartment was paid through December, so no worries there. The sole question was, what to do. For entertainment, I listened to movies. 'Iron Man' and 'Get Smart' became my companions, since I had already watched them several times and knew the pictures that went with the story. I sat on the sofa and started thinking...hard. What now?

On day ten, I opened my eyes and was startled. There, at the very corner of my left eye, was light. More than that, there was information. I could actually see something. it wasn't much, but a match is a miracle in the dark! Over the next two weeks, it was exciting to wake up! Every day brought with it new sight. More and more of my eyes were clearing. After two weeks, I could actually go out on the balcony and see houses and cars and trees. No color, mind you, but my peripheral vision was returning. Slowly the darkness cleared, beginning at the outside and moving inwards. There was a sharp demarcation across my vision between light and dark. It was enough that I could leave the apartment and go down to the shops, or sit by the pool or just do anything but sit and think.

By the end of April, I could see pretty well...maybe 70% of normal. I couldn't watch TV, but I could use a computer. Something about the frequency of light from a CRT and an LCD allows me to see one, but not the other. My central vision was sharp, but black-and-white. My peripheral vision had some color. I could see the color blue quite well and even vividly, red a good bit less, and brown, green and yellow were gone. The inside half of my right eye was still black, but I could see well enough to get around independently. I couldn't really cook, though. I couldn't see the color or quality of the food, so I burned everything or ran the risk of eating bad vegetables.

By this time, I had gone to The Jakarta Eye Clinic. I was referred for a CT scan, which came back with a small white area on the occipital lobe. There was speculation that it was a brain tumor; a neural fibroma. I was then referred for a 64-slice MRI of my entire head. The results showed that the white area was an artifect in the film, and not a cancer. I breathed again. But, there was no other obvious reason for my blindness: no stoke, no hemorrhage, nothing. By now the diagnosis was closing in on MS, though there was one more test to be sure, because MS rarely affects both eyes at the same time. I had stopped the steroids and my sight had settled around 60% of original. Though I could read a standard eye chart down to the smallest detail, the area of my vision that was clear was very small, and there was still no color in my central vision.

The last test was another MRI. This time, it was a high-resolution scan from the base of my nose to the center of my forehead, covering the eyes, nerves and occipital region of my brain. It was conclusive. There were small legions on the optic nerves characteristic of MS. It seems that MS is an auto-immune malfunction that attacks the protective sheath around nerves. The senses are particularly susceptible, because they are the most delicate. Turns out I had signs for many years. My hearing problems were most likely a symptom, as well, and not just damage from years of being a rock and roll stagehand, or working in a scene shop without hearing protection. Various aches and pains could also be attributed to early symptoms. Would it have made anu difference if I had known earlier? Probably not.

I was given the option of beginning courses of various pills (ah, western medicine). All came with onerous side-effects, life-long use and no guarantees.

"No thanks."

I have since been using a strict vitamin and mineral regimen, used acupuncture and maintained a healthy, well-rounded diet. The results have been mixed. I can now perceive a wider range of colors, but the overall quality and resolution of my vision has degraded. Not a lot, but noticeable. I have a hard time seeing at night. What I see are yellowish-white lights floating in a sea of black with objects very close to me being at least partially visible.

I can't really see faces, at least not in passing. If I talk to someone, I can find their eyes, but I can't see the rest of their face, so I have to guess their mood and level of seriousness. I am frequently wrong. I can look at the mouth, but then it takes a second to find the eyes again. It is quite difficult to hold a conversation when you can't see someone's face. It is one reason I have always hated the telephone. Now, all of my interactions are like talking on the phone.

I have a very limited range of acuity. There are what amounts to small areas in my central vision where I can see sharply. At about a foot from my face, it is about three inches wide. In general, I see the world as if looking through amber colored glass, smeared with Vasoline while watching a noisy (pre-cable) TV station. I often get amazing geometric patterns of sharp color and shapes floating in my vision, as it looking at stained glass windows. They block my vision and I can't see anything beyond them. My vision changes daily, sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse. I can read quite well if I use a blue LED light, which enhances the contrast of the text and paper. I have a very hard time discerning objects that have similar contrast values, and my sight is pretty much two-dimensional. Stairs scare the hell out of me, especially in a country where the rise and run of the treads can vary significantly on a single flight.

I have developed a strange walk where I don't put weight on the leading foot until I am sure where it is going. Several good spills, including falling in a ditch, taught me that. I have also developed a stoop. Being Indonesia, the general population here is a full head shorter than me, and overhead objects are lowered accordingly. I have whacked my forehead good and proper enough times to learn that lesson. When walking, especially at night, I often have to stop to assess the way in front of me, or in the alternative, pick someone in a crowd going the same way and shadow them. Even still, objects often surprise me as they materialize directly in front of me. Crossing a busy street is a nightmare. I have to listen carefully for motor sounds where the dopler pitch is rising and coming in my general direction. I can't see the objects until they are about five yards from me; too late in the case of fast moving traffic.

Among other effects, the center three toes on both feet have gone numb. It's more annoying than anything else. I get strange transient pains, not in the muscles, but deep in the nerves, that last for a time and then go away. All in all, things could be much worse, but there's plenty of room for improvement. I have eschewed western pill-pushers for more traditional approaches. Herbs and vitamins, massage, acupuncture, and other approaches are far less damaging and cheaper than pharma. There's a chance I may have more attacks, or there's a chance I may never have another.

In the meantime, I have learned Braille and the Braille typewriter. I have converted my computer to voice-activation and have gotten software that reads the screen to me. Though I don't yet need it, there is no time like the present to prepare. I refuse to be a victim and will maintain as much independence as I am safely able. It's really amazing how fast the body adjusts and makes accommodation for changes in function.

But, in the end, it is the love and support of friends and family that have kept me going, especially of a particular beautiful woman who has cared for me daily for the past year. For her, I am deeply thankful, for I would be truly lost without her.