Tracking a Shadow: My Lived Experiment with MS

by Edith Forbes

Overview

A memoir of the author’s twenty-five-year, self-designed experiment with a nonpharmaceutical approach to multiple sclerosis and of the indomitable mother who taught her to meet trouble with active resistance. 

When novelist Edith Forbes experienced her first episode of multiple sclerosis in 1993, few treatments existed. The famously crippling disease was a medical mystery, its cause unknown and its course unpredictable. The only medical advice Forbes received then was to “simply live your life.” She had other ideas.

Forbes grew up on a ranch in Wyoming, raised by a widowed mother who met challenges head on. Besides shouldering responsibility for seven children and a cattle ranch, Forbes’s dynamo mother had ambitions to change the world. As a forward-thinking woman in a largely male business, she became a model of tenacity and independence for her daughter.

After her MS diagnosis, Forbes turned her fear into action, immersing herself in the medical literature to search for ideas. Finding an unexpected connection between the medical information and her own knowledge of agriculture, she embarked on a self-designed experiment that continues to this day.

Tracking a Shadow weaves together the story of Forbes’s personal twenty-five-year medical experiment with a memoir of the mother whose constant determination to look for better answers shaped the author’s unique approach to her disease.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781954854246
Publisher:	Girl Friday Books
Publication date:	03/22/2022
Pages:	156
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 5.20(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Edith Forbes grew up on a family ranch in Wyoming. She graduated from Stanford Universitywith a degree in English. She is the author of four novels: Alma Rose, Nowle’s Passing, Exit to Reality, and Navigating the Darwin Straits. Recently retired from her farm, she lives in Vermont.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 A Buzz in the Nerves 1

2 Experiment in the Living Room 11

3 Shelves of Bafflement 19

4 Corollary Benefits 29

5 Through a Sea of Mud 36

6 From Maybe to Yes 44

7 The Risk Made Visible 55

8 Calculating the Odds 62

9 The Waterworks 70

10 Kicks under the Table 78

11 The Quiet House 89

12 One Less Worry 95

13 The Slipstream 101

14 Climate, Cows, and the Common Cold 111

15 DR15 122

16 Shy Person 130

Acknowledgments 137

Sources Consulted 139

About the Author 143

Editorial Reviews

"[A] remarkably intelligent and inspirational account of finding a personal path to living positively with the uncertainties of MS. Interwoven with a page-turning chronicle of growing up shy and gay on a Wyoming family ranch is a meticulous investigation of the evolving scientific understanding of MS." —Ford von Reyn MD, DSc (Hon), professor of medicine, Geisel School of Medicine 

"Her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis . . . led Edith to conduct a multi-decade research study of a single subject, herself. . . . Fascinating reading for anyone who wants to learn more about how what we eat can affect our health and well-being."  —Gail Nickel-Kailing, GoodFood World 

"Edith Forbes’s account of her quest to understand a little-understood disease will be useful not only to those with MS but also to everyone making choices in a medical system that doesn’t have all the answers. A lucid thinker, a dogged researcher, and a graceful writer whose sentences are simultaneously lyrical and spare, Forbes shows us how an understanding of one’s illness is inextricably connected to an understanding of one’s life." —George Howe Colt, author of The Big House, Brothers, and The Game 

"Nearly three decades after she experienced the early signs of multiple sclerosis, Edith Forbes has written an extraordinary memoir recounting her experiment with an unorthodox—yet successful to date—treatment to prevent the highly unpredictable flare-ups of this potentially devastating disease. . . .There is a lot to learn from this well-researched, highly readable, and compelling account of not only MS but also the state of the US healthcare system and our personal responsibility to act in a way that will benefit not just ourselves but others in our society as well. This very personal account of her experience should serve as an inspiration for others looking for support in facing similar challenges." —Dr. Stephen J. Atwood, MD

 "Forbes shares her accumulated knowledge of MS and advocates the importance of personal choice when considering treatment. She is an expressive writer who can deftly pinpoint the emotions associated with having MS . . . a compellingly textured, informative memoir that lucidly examines the medical decisions facing MS patients and encourages a proactive mentality. Sharply optimistic, frank, and inspiring writing about MS." —Kirkus Reviews

"[Forbes’s] wonderful mother, friends, and siblings fill the pages with color and verve . . . If you're an MS patient or love someone who is, I highly recommend this wonderful book. It is a breath of fresh air—an honest portrait of life with this bizarre, confounding, and frustrating disease." —Jamie A. Hughes, writer/editor at tousledapostle.com 

From the Publisher

2022-02-08
In this memoir, a novelist recounts how she embarked on a personal medical experiment after exhibiting symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

In 1993, at the age of 38, Forbes began to feel the sensation of her nerves prickling. She visited her family doctor, but treatments for MS at that time were heavily limited. The physician told her to “go live your life and see if the symptoms come back.” The author lived on a small farm in Vermont. Her father was a rancher with a Harvard education who conducted an experiment in the hope of revolutionizing cattle breeding. When Forbes’ symptoms returned in 1995, she began to research MS in detail. This led her to start an experiment of her own that involved avoidance of milk products, which she felt caused flare-ups. Later, she received a formal diagnosis of MS. The memoir also explores other key life events, such as the author’s coming out, caring for her ill mother, and dealing with a lawsuit filed by her brother concerning the family’s cattle business problems. Forbes shares her accumulated knowledge of MS and advocates the importance of personal choice when considering treatment. She is an expressive writer who can deftly pinpoint the emotions associated with having MS: “Life now included a permanent shadow companion that often sleeps but could cripple or kill when it wakes up.” The author draws on her scientific knowledge of the disease but never resorts to confounding medical jargon: “The only strategy available was to throw up roadblocks between the T cells and their wrongheaded target in the nerves.” Some readers may feel that Forbes is overly digressive when discussing her mother’s illness, but it later becomes clear how such events inspired the author to write about her own health struggles. Forbes’ style can be bluntly direct when necessary: “At least if patients are given the information, it is their own choice to ignore it.” This is offset by the author’s warm and richly descriptive approach to storytelling: “We had met in the whirl of the dance floor, briefly clasping hands to make circles and allemandes.” Forbes presents a compellingly textured, informative memoir that lucidly examines the medical decisions facing MS patients and encourages a proactive mentality.

Sharply optimistic, frank, and inspiring writing about MS.

Kirkus Reviews