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    Life Happens: Living a Healthy Life Despite a Chronic Illness
    Life Happens: Living a Healthy Life Despite a Chronic Illness
    Life Happens: Living a Healthy Life Despite a Chronic Illness
    Ebook108 pages1 hour

    Life Happens: Living a Healthy Life Despite a Chronic Illness

    By Nathalie Brisebois

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Nathalie Brisebois has lived through many difficult challenges, but has found a path to health and happiness. In Life Happens, she shares the story of her experiences battling multiple sclerosis.

    For years, living with remittent-recurrent multiple sclerosis dictated who she was and what she did. Brisebois describes her journey battling the many devastating physical and mental effects of this chronic, degenerative disease and the ways that it influenced her work, her family, and her entire being. But in Life Happens, she tells how she began looking for options and a way to heal herself, addressing alternatives such as nutrition, yoga, meditation, vegetarianism, and living a simple life.

    Filled with tips, suggestions, and ideas for living with and battling a chronic illness, Life Happens communicates a message of inspiration and hope, of looking for what you want in life, of never giving up, and of finding and being at peace with your life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateMay 6, 2013
    ISBN9781475988048
    Life Happens: Living a Healthy Life Despite a Chronic Illness
    Author

    Nathalie Brisebois

    Nathalie Brisebois earned a BS degree in biochemistry from Concordia University, Montréal, as well as a fitness and nutrition degree. She is currently seeking a degree as a life coach. Brisebois is a training program development specialist. She, her husband, and her son live a vegetarian life-style filled with yoga and meditation in Montréal, Québec.

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      Book preview

      Life Happens - Nathalie Brisebois

      Copyright © 2013 Nathalie Brisebois.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      iUniverse

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.iuniverse.com

      1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-8802-4 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-8803-1 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-8804-8 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2013901016

      iUniverse rev. date: 4/18/2013

      Contents

      Preface

      Acknowledgments

      Introduction

      How it all started

      Years of worries without answers -1997-

      -1998-

      -1999-

      -2000-

      -2001-

      -2002-

      The year my life was turned upside down-2003-

      Worst years of my life

      - 2004 -

      - 2005 -

      My Wake-Up Call- 2006 -

      Secrets to My Healing

      Reiki, yoga, and meditation

      Changing My Environment—Inside and Outside

      A Scientific Perspective on Vegetarianism

      Conclusion

      References

      Be the change you want to see in the world.

      — Gandhi

      34054.jpg

      Preface

      I wrote this book because years ago my yoga teacher asked me to write an article for her website. The article was about how I have managed to live a healthy life while dealing with multiple sclerosis (MS). Though the article was well received, I felt it was way too short. I wished I could have shared more of my story.

      After my husband read the article, he suggested that I write a book if I had more to say. I decided to give it a try after months of hesitating. When I began writing, I did not know if I would ever get the book published, or even finish writing it. At one point I even thought about stopping because the book was really difficult to write. The process of writing took me back to a period of my life that I wish had never happened.

      I decided to keep on writing though; just taking breaks whenever I felt the need. Sometimes I would go for weeks without even thinking about writing. Today, I am happy that I finished the book. It has allowed me to know myself better.

      34057.jpg

      Acknowledgments

      Thanks to Maryse, the yoga teacher who gave me the idea for this book by asking me for a testimonial on how I live MS-free.

      Thanks to Germaine, my psychologist, to whom I owe much of my recovery from this disease. Without her, I might never have discovered my true self.

      Thanks to Saranya, an amazing woman. Life put her in my path when I was almost done writing this book, and she helped me bring it to a close. A yogi and a Buddhist, she is helping me integrate the different spheres of my life, helping me learn how to be a true yogi. She has already had a huge impact on my life, and I have no doubt she will continue to shape my life even more in the future.

      Thanks to my best friend Marie, who never changed the way she treated me or the way she looked at me after my diagnosis. She may have been one of the only people, aside from my husband, who never thought of me as being sick. We simply continued doing what we did before. If I felt sick or tired, she never made any fuss about it. I really appreciated being seen the same way as always. She’s been there for me throughout my ups and down. We evolved together! We have shared many great, and not so great, experiences, and all of those experiences just draw us closer together. I know she can’t wait to read this book.

      Thanks to Lise, Chantal, Courtney, Corinne, and many other people who have struggled with the same health issues that I have faced. Their support helped motivate me to write this book. I hope this book will help them and others deal their MS!

      Thanks to my son, Cédric, to whom I owe my life. Without him, I might have lost hope on that dark day of September 8, 2000. He was my reason to hang on to life. He motivated me to recover and seek a cure. No woman wants her child to have a sick or disabled mother.

      Finally, I want to thank my beloved husband, Réal, who has always been there for me during the past ten years. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health—those wedding vows could not get any truer for us! He supported me in so many ways: providing Reiki treatments for me, helping me relax and not worry so much, teaching me to have faith, and encouraging me to follow my gut feelings. He went through hell with me, staying by my side until we got out of it together. He never lost faith in me. I never worried that he might leave me, and that sense of security was very important to me. He also encouraged me to write this book. He helped me believe that I could serve other people as an author and teacher, helping them find a way out of their own misery. When I met him ten years ago, I thought he would be the love of my life. Today I know he is!

      34059.jpg

      Introduction

      I hope this book will help other people who are dealing with severe health problems to search for their own solutions. This book is about hope, about never giving up. Looking for what works out for you.

      Like me, you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to do—regain your health, write a book, reinvent yourself. There are no set rules that you have to obey. Just make up your own rules, and be happy!

      I once had Multiple sclerosis (MS)—had, as in the past. I no longer have it. I have not been sick for the past five years. For eight years of my life, I moved in and out of this incurable degenerative disease. That battle is the subject of this book.

      MS is a neurodegenerative disorder that attacks the body gradually. In most cases, it eventually robs a person of the ability to walk, requiring the use of a walker, cane, or wheelchair. The disease affects the arms and/or hands too, reducing manual dexterity. MS also causes vision problems, ranging from spotted or blurry vision to partial or total blindness, and speech impairment. In rare cases, the disease attacks the brain and other internal organs such as the lungs, intestines, bladder, and kidneys. Though nobody has ever died of MS per se, many people die from complications related to MS.

      The scientific medical establishment maintains that I cannot be cured and predicts that eventually I will have another crisis. According to the doctors, it’s just a question of time because there are no known cure for MS. Consider these facts, however. Between 1997 and 2005, I had one major crisis per year and was not symptom-free for more than a few months at a time. Between 2005 and 2012, however, I did not have a single crisis, and I have not experienced a single symptom of MS since 2007.

      Today I feel great! I cannot understand why, and nobody can provide a scientific explanation, so I consider myself cured. I also have been free of medication for five years now, so I cannot attribute my good health to the effectiveness of prescription drugs. I am not saying the doctors are wrong; nor am I saying that I am right. Who knows what is right or wrong? All I know is how I feel. I consider myself cured, and that is all that matters to me.

      I do not want this book to sound pretentious, like I have all the answers. I’m just an average person who worked hard to gather information about my medical condition. I had to figure things out by myself in order to feel great today. It took years but turned out to be a

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