Happy Year Of The Rat
Welcome to the New Year. Special greetings go out to R.V., currently in China receiving treatment. Thank you for your comment to my blog-I’ve been eagerly reading about your progress and am pleased to know everything is going so well for you…Anyone can read the blog , on this site ( under “Ataxia Man”) or directly at:
http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://stemcellataxia.blogspot.com/
take a look at the fund-raising site:
http://www.mediumonline.ca/news/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=942&Itemid=96
How true , what he says, we should learn from the rat’s positive qualities. It’s great to know there is a place offering us hope for wellness and a group of people encouraging us to strive ahead. How refreshing-a nice change from the standard, “well, you can’t do this “ or the equally frustrating, “sorry, we can’t help you”!
My latest bit of news thats pretty exciting is stumbling on an article about a traditional Chinese medicinal treatment for spinocerebellar ataxia (my diagnosis). If you want to have a read about the clinical study, done in Japan, the site is:
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/ggi/2007/00000007/00000002/art00017
This is only the abstract (summary) but it gives you the general idea. To make a long story short, I am doing the same treatment here, with the help of my Doctor of T.C.M. (traditional Chinese medicine). I’m only in my 3rd week but so far, so good. I’ll report more as time goes on-I do the treatment for 8 weeks.
I haven’t had any significant changes since returning from my treatment a little over a year ago ( I got home Jan. 17 ‘07) and am doing just as well as I was then. I feel new improvements have tapered off but it’s hard to know if they’ve stopped or just slowed down. At least they aren’t disappearing …I’m STILL doing exercises, every day for an hour. I’m doing more now because, well, I can & it feels good. Contrary to some accounts I’ve read, it’s not hard to set up an exercise regimen. You don’t need a lot of money or, even special equipment. All you need , really, are a set of stairs and a stretch of open ground to practice walking ( a sidewalk, part of a basement?) I have a treadmill because we had one before and I find it useful-but I don’t need one….I can balance on one leg almost anywhere, the same goes for touching my nose, etc… with eyes closed and doing squats. Handwriting can be practiced anywhere, anytime-the same thing for getting up & down from a chair. If you can’t do those things, do what you can. No one’s making you do it–it’s not like school-after all, it’s a personal choice. But, it certainly can’t hurt, the alternative is fading away… I don’t believe some of the whinging & complaining I’ve heard from some sources. I mean, come on!!! There’s no pleasing some people…. I will add that I am not a “jock” and this is a personal opinion !
Best wishes for a joyful, lucky and prosperous New Year to all my Chinese friends (and everyone reading, actually) Hello to Angela (you found me on Facebook!) It’s snowing right now in Vancouver so better stoke up the fireplace….
Till next time…take good care…
Christine
The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.
- Lao Tzu
Add comment February 7th, 2008
