10 Things I've Done DESPITE Having Multiple Sclerosis

In 2000, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. When I was forced to leave the best job I'd ever had and go on disability, I thought my life was over. It wasn't. Here's the top ten things I've accomplished since then.

1. I have written and published four novels and one non-fiction book.

2. The first novel I published, The Bond, A Paranormal Love Story, has won an award, been translated into Turkish and movie producers have looked at it.

3.  My third book, Missing Flowers, had over 10,000 downloads during a four-day free promo.

4. Missing Flowers was number one in Germany during these four days for a short time.

5.   I've had two  Amazon number one best-selling books. The Bond and Missing Flowers.

6. My books are in select libraries across North America.

7.   I'm the Vancouver Voyageur, I walk around the city, taking photos, recording history and meeting people.

8.  I write a blog on Vancouver and its history – the Vancouver Voyager - which has gained notice from other parts of the world.

9. A local magazine approached me and asked to use some of my photos from the Vancouver Voyageur in a layout.

10.   I've started a career as a motivational speaker, another way I help people realize what they can do in life.

If you feel that you are ready to start living life again, to accomplish goals and do more than you ever thought you were capable of, then stop trying to figure it all out on your own and make sure you don’t go another year without seeing some success — click here

I might be able to help you by mentoring you & giving you a step-by-step system that I have been using for the last 15+YEARS to realize dreams and go past my diagnosis. click here 

To your success, 

Karen Magill 

P.S. It is NOT right for everyone – but if you feel having me working with you almost “daily” & giving you a proven step by step system to follow will help you get your life back on track then click here for more details.

The Cure is Here...Almost

Living with a chronic illness like multiple sclerosis can be a life of emotional ups and downs - a rollercoaster. Ever since I was diagnosed in 2000, I've heard how close medicine is to a cure for the disease. It seems that a few times a year, a new breakthrough treatment has been discovered that is going to eradicate MS forever. 

Then, as quickly as the excitement started, it seems to fade away as people realize there is no magic potion that is going to return them to perfect health.

Stem cell - as far as I know the procedure is still being performed but I don't hear about the miracles being brought forth with this procedure.

CCSVI - another procedure that looked so promising. I've known people who flew to European and Latin American countries to have this procedure done. I don't know of anyone who had great and wondrous results and recently I heard that the blockage, which the procedure removes, can grow back.

Those are the two biggest 'cures' I can think of.

We are also bombarded with suspected causes of whatever chronic illness a person has. Aspartame causes MS so people get rid of artificial sweeteners in their diet but the MS stays. Not enough Vitamin D so we load up on supplements. It is our modern day diet - get rid of grains, eat only organic fruits and vegetables and grass fed meat.

We end up with a cupboard full of vitamins and supplements, an astronomical grocery bill and, many times, little improvement in our overall health.

So what do you do? We want to get better, to live a healthier, more meaningful life but what kind of life are you living if you are continuously chasing the next cure? If you are only focused on that next treatment that may cure the disease and are always looking for it, are you forgetting to live life for today? Remember - no one has promised us tomorrow.

If you feel that you are ready to start living life again, to accomplish goals and do more than you ever thought you were capable of, then stop trying to figure it all out on your own and make sure you don’t go another year without seeing some success — click here 

I might be able to help you by mentoring you & giving you a step-by-step system that I have been using for the last 15+YEARS to realize dreams and go past my diagnosis. click here 

To your success, 

Karen Magill 

P.S. It is NOT right for everyone – but if you feel having me working with you almost “daily” & giving you a proven step by step system to follow will help you get your life back on track then click here for more details.

The End of Life as I Knew It

It occurred to me that, although many of my readers may know that I have multiple sclerosis, they may not be aware of how it all started. So today, I am going to tell you.

I want to take you back to June 5, 2000. The alarm sounded and I rolled over to turn it off.  But my left arm didn't move so I silenced it with my right hand. Then I tried to climb out of bed but as soon as I put weight on my legs, the left one collapsed. I didn't have a lot of time to worry about it though because nature was calling. I crawled the short distance to the bathroom and hauled my body on the toilet. After I had finished there I was able to put some weight on the leg and I pulled myself up to the vanity and leaned against it. While brushing my teeth, I noticed that e left side of my face wasn't moving. It was as if someone had drawn an invisible line down the centre of my body. One side worked while the other didn't. Something was wrong but what?

The weird thing about this is that I wasn't terrified. I didn't call for an ambulance or find my way to the nearest hospital. No, I went to work. I did call and make a doctor's appointment as soon as they opened and the doctor sent me to the emergency room at St. Paul's Hospital.

Picture this. I am sitting in the emergency room at a large hospital in down town Vancouver and I have lost most of the use and feeling in my left side. Did I mention that my maternal grandmother died of brain tumour at this hospital in 1937? You can bet I thought about that possibility.

It took me over six hours before I was able to see a doctor. He poked and prodded me and asked me the same questions my doctor had. Then he left to get a neurology intern who came and did the same thing! All they would tell me was that it wasn't a brain tumour. Relief! But I still didn't know what the problem was.

In total, I was at the hospital for seven and a half hours before being allowed to leave. With no answers by the way. I was fed up by that time and just wanted to go home. I had the phone number of a neurologist to call and make an appointment so I guess events were promising.

On June 7, I went to the neurologist who did the same thing the other doctors had. The change this time was that he sent me for an MRI.

I was lucky. I managed to get in for an MRI within a week - usually it takes months to get one - and nine days after I woke to find my world turned upside down, I was called in the neurologist's office and given a diagnosis:

Multiple Sclerosis.

Actually, he said a suspicion of multiple sclerosis but it is more dramatic the way I said it.

The diagnosis was actually a relief in many ways. In 1986, at the age of nineteen, I went horse-back riding and the horse had a heart attack and fell on me, cracking my skull. Obviously, I recovered but I was left with strange things happening to my body. Like sudden numbness in my legs or arms that would go away. I was getting unexplained pain all over my body. Doctors never had an answer but now someone may have given me a reason why these things kept happening to me. As my late father said,

"The Devil you know is better than the one you don't".

I was told to take five weeks off work to rest and I thought great! I wanted some time off anyway. I will rest then go back to work and my life will continue as normal. Was I ever wrong!

Are you curious as to what happened next in my life? Tune in again and I will tell you.

The photos are from Morgue File except the one of St. Paul's Hospital. I took that one.

See ya next time!

Are You Living the Life You Want?

If you aren't, why not?

Do you feel as if your life is moving too slowly and the road to your goals is going to take forever? I know that feeling, as if my dreams were never going to come true. I have felt like I was banging my head against the proverbial wall and the only thing I am getting for it is a massive headache.

I'll tell you a bit about me. In June of 2000, I woke to find myself partially paralysed on one side of my body.  Nine days later, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and four months after that, I was forced to go on disability and leave the best job I had ever had. I thought my life was over.

I was single and living alone. I thought the only thing left for me was reality shows like Dancing with Stars or Real Housewives of wherever! I didn't think I would ever do anything exciting again. Oh, I was so wrong!

It is now 14 years later and I am living the life I want. I have five published books, one an award winner; I have gotten rid of the cane I walked with for thirteen years and I am working towards a career as a motivational speaker. And life coach. My days aren't bleak any longer and I don't dread facing the new day. In fact, I look forward to it.

I still have things I want to accomplish like being more financially successful and losing weight and I am working on those. I have no doubt I will accomplish those goals in the near future.

Now I want to help others realize their goals. I want to work with people who are feeling overwhelmed with life and get them back on the right track. My clients will even get a free copy of my one and only non-fiction book, On The Right Side, My Story of Survival and Success that tells about my journey with MS.

Does this sound like something you, or someone you know, would be interested in? If so, visit this page for more information.

And remember, as long as you aren't six feet under, you are on the right side and anything is possible. Let me help you accomplish what may seem impossible.

The photos are from Morgue File.

ON THE RIGHT SIDE

Strange Happenings

Everything happens for a reason. We are told that and I am sure that many roll our eyes and think yeah right. But it does.

Bear with me while I take you back to April of 2013. That is when I stopped using my cane to assist me walking. That was also when I knew the time was right for me to write my book On The Right Side, My Story of Survival and Success, which tells about my journey with multiple sclerosis. This book was not only cathartic to write but will also help others. I hope.

But to get my message out to as many people as possible, I knew I needed more than just the book so I decided to explore the possibility of motivational speaking.

Fast forward to end of February, beginning of March of this year. I happened to see Bradley Shende on Global TV morning news and he was talking about the BIL conference coming to Vancouver. The organizers were looking for volunteers and speakers. So I started looking for more information but I couldn't find anything until someone on my Facebook friend's list posted about the conference. (I was spelling it wrong) So I found the correct website, posted something and things started moving from there.

It's funny. When I first posted, I got that sinking feeling in my stomach and I knew I was stepping out of my comfort zone and doing something right.

I had a great time and Bradley and I discussed getting together so he could give me some ideas. Originally, we were supposed to have coffee around the first few weeks of April but that didn't happen. Bradley is a very busy man and couldn't find the time. We finally set up a time to meet on May 2.

Now I am going to take you back even further. To a cloudy day in August of 1990. That day a friend and I went to Canada Olympic Park in Calgary to see a free concert featuring Paul Laine, The Pursuit of Happiness and Bryan Adams. I met one of the men from Paul's band and Paul and I ended up connecting a few months later. Years pass, life goes on and we lose touch.

Thanks to Facebook, I managed to reconnect with Paul and on April 27, I went to see his new band, Darkhorse. Great show, I had a blast. I got to talk at length with Paul and his friend Les Horne and even had my photo taken with Paul, which I put on my phone. I didn't realize it beforehand, but Paul had been working on music behind the scenes and this was the first time in years he had performed like this. I was even more honoured to be there.

Are you with me so far? Because things are about to get a little weird.

Friday, May 2, I am sitting in the waiting room of the office that Bradley shares with another company. He was an hour and a half late but because he was, I saw something I didn't realize existed. A backpack with a section especially for a laptop. I just got my first laptop and was going out after our meeting to get something to carry it in. So if Bradley had been on time I wouldn't have seen that and it is ideal for me.

Bradley and I were sitting having coffee and I showed him something on my phone. He looks at the photo and says 'that's Paul Laine.'. I said yeah.

Paul had created music for one of Bradley's projects and the office where I had sat waiting for Bradley used to be Paul's.

Now you may say that is just coincidence but is it really? Think about it. I get rid of my cane, decide to venture into motivational writing and speaking at the same time the BIL Conference makes it debut in Vancouver and through there I meet some awesome people who I hope to be friends with for many years.

My meeting with Bradley were delayed to until after I saw an uber-talented musician perform whom we both know. Something was guiding circumstances to create just the perfect connection. I think it was fate and it means that I am involved with the right people and on the right track to accomplishing my goals.

Think about that the next time a meeting is delayed or you miss a plane or are late. Everything happens for a reason and in its own time, we just don't always see why.

At least that's my opinion. The photos are from Morgue File.

See ya next time!

How Green Grew

On the weekend of March 22 and 23, I had the privilege of being involved with the BIL Conference. I met some really great people and one of the, David J. Hiebert, is contributing to today's entry.

David is the author of Gratefully Green, a children's book that explains the benefit of living a green lifestyle.

I haven't always been green. I’m still not “perfectly” green. Why wasn't my life “green”? There was a problem with the roots.

After years of marriage, I divorced. I jumped into a series of relationships. Common law, an affair with a married woman, a marriage that ended when I cheated. I stopped. I lived alone. I took stock of my life. I saw that what my life had grown into was very weedy,confusing and not very attractive. During this ”gardening” I was clinically diagnosed as having ADHD. I received treatment, benefited from an adult ADHD support group and started to weed, prune and cultivate my life.

Then an “inner voice” asked me if I would be willing to be an apprentice for sixty years to work for one? That was not such a strange question considering that I had just had my second blood transfusion. I had had ALL the tests. Cancer? No. A virus? No. Finally there were no more tests to take. Then followed years of monitored maintenance. More blood transfusions. Weekly and bi-weekly Iron infusions. My doctor said she was glad that she had saved my life.

I decided to live my life more honourably by being Creative, Compassionate and Humble. It was during this time of deconstructing and rebuilding my life that a concept came to me. The concept was that each letter of the word GREEN had a meaning to explain what “Going Green” might mean. It started with, “G is for Grateful”, “R is for Respectful” etc. Each “explanation” became wordy and plodding. These ramblings morphed into snappy poems. I drew the illustrations.

And so the concept grew. The leaves became pages that turned into a book. The process to an ISBN numbered children’s book called Gratefully Going GREEN took five years.

I have read Gratefully Going GREEN at a school, it’s in a local book store and I’ve presented it at the recent BIL conference. Where will the book go next? I don’t really know. It’s still growing. .

Thank you. David (J. Hiebert)

Thank you David for an entertaining, and enlightening, article.

The photos are from me and Morgue File.

See ya next time.