Why The Name?
Welcome! I'm so happy to have you visit my pages! My name is Shari, and I'd like to take a minute to explain how I came up with the name of my website: My Life Experiment
Life in general is really one, big experiment. It starts off when we're infants; figuring out how to roll over, which cry will get mom to come faster, crawling, walking.......and then we experiment with our family dynamics, friendships, how to get our homework done more quickly so we can go out and play (I never grew out of that last one)! Some of our experiments fail spectacularly and others are a great success. At some point though, some of us reach a place in our lives where life and death is on the line, and our experiments might be the only thing that can save us. This is where I found myself back in 2002. My health seemed to just fall apart! First my gall bladder, then my lady parts, body pain EVERYWHERE, fatigue, weight gain, the list went on and on. The first diagnosis I received was hypothyroidism. Next up came diabetes. Neither of those explained the body pain though, so I was thrown in with so many others and received the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. That last diagnosis was incorrect by the way. I'll get into that later. Also during these years, my husband was diagnosed with cancer. We were unhealthy and unhappy to say the least.......but life goes on and we went to our doctors, took our pills, and did what they told us while continuing to get sicker and sicker.
My husband was a real trooper and fought his cancer for nine years. About in the middle of his war, the doctors finally found out what was really wrong with me.......I have multiple sclerosis (MS). After doing some actual digging into my history, they figured I'd probably had it most of my life. Because it is the relapsing/remitting type, it didn't become obvious enough to diagnose until it became quite terrible. This is when both my husband and I realized that our life experiments had become a life and death matter. What the doctors were telling us were not working. The surgeries and medications were not working. We wanted to not only live, but live well and happily! So my research and experimentation began in earnest.
Unfortunately for my dear husband, he chose to continue down the road the doctors prescribed (because they're experts and they should know). Every time they thought they'd gotten it, it came back with a vengeance. More surgeries and finally chemo and radiation were the last ditch efforts. Not once did any of his many doctors bring up nutrition or supplementing to help his body heal itself. Not once. His oncologist was even offended when I tried to bring up some research studies that were showing success in shrinking brain tumors using a ketogenic diet. How dare I question him!
In 2014, after I'd unsuccessfully tried a very expensive MS drug (it nearly ate my liver), and my husband was undergoing his chemo and radiation and had to be put on a feeding tube, I decided enough was enough! I told my neurologist I would not try any more MS drugs (having researched all that's available at this time and finding the statistics dismal), and decided to do a one of one experiment with nutrition as the basis of controlling my disease. He pretty much kicked me out and told me not to come back unless I was willing to take whatever medicine he prescribed. My husband was more than willing to try at that point, but so much damage had been done by the radiation that he never was able to be taken off the feeding tube and eating real food was quite difficult for him. The only things he really wanted to eat were sugary and very bad for him. He did the best he could, but it was just too late.
For me, the research and one of one experiment on diet and nutrition have been a life saver! I so wish I'd had been able to convince my husband sooner, but life is what it is, so I'll dedicate my diligence in research to his memory. Starting now, I want to share what I've been learning with you in hopes it will improve your life, or someone you love. We'll go over a whole range of topics which will include: Diets that help the body heal itself, Supplements that may help you, Exercise that will make it easier to move, Fighting Fatigue, Recipes (always a favorite), Traveling with Disabilities, Living with Illness (your own or others), Depression and Illness, Doing Your Own One of One experiment, the latest Science and Nutrition news, and any other topics we can think of that will help us to live better lives!
Stay tuned!
