Day 27– Thank you to everyone that is reading our blog; liking our facebook posts; and for your supportive comments. These past 4 weeks have meant more to Jane and I than we could have ever imagined.
The first day we posted the blog we received 277 views, and we couldn’t believe it! We have been averaging 60 views a post, up to 117. Our blog has just been placed on google’s first page for Multiple Sclerosis and CrossFit. The support we have received from all of you has been incredible and we couldn’t be more thankful.
As I have said in our About Us page, a month ago I was thinking that within a year Jane would be in a wheel chair if her health continued to decline at the rate it was going. Everyday it was getting harder and harder for her to get around the house, and she had stopped going outside other than to the car and store.
I was in complete disbelief as I watched the love of my life slowly lose her ability to walk. Watching her try to come to grips with what we thought her future was going to be, is one of the hardest things I have had to deal with. Seeing her so frustrated and upset because of her limited ability to walk broke my heart. I tried my best to be strong for her because I knew if she saw me get emotional it would make the situation even worse.
I couldn’t accept it and none of it made sense to me. I knew Jane could be physically strong, I just didn’t know how. I had seen how strong she was when she was a full-time yoga teacher four years ago, Jane Gould Yoga, before her health began declining and she had two miscarriages. The problem after was that taking one-and-a-half-hour yoga classes exhausted her. Half way through the class she needed to stop and rest for the rest of class, and with each class, because of the fatigue, she did less and because she did less, she slowly lost confidence, as well as physical strength. But not only physical strength, lesions in her brain had caused her to lose balance, feeling, given her ‘drop-foot’ and a host of other symptoms. The MS had taken it’s grip.
And then somehow, it came to me that CrossFit might help her. It had been right in front of my face for the past year and I just didn’t see it. So I began to research CrossFit and MS. I talked to Mike founder of 38 Degrees North, Petaluma, and we came up with a program for Jane…Next the blog came and here we are…
It is amazing to witness Jane’s small miracles. The workouts are short in duration, and although she fatigues once her core warms up, she is able to do the exercises if we modify them. The benefits we have seen in just 4 weeks have been incredible. Jane has more flexibility in her hips, has more energy every day, and last Saturday she got around the entire day with out fatiguing or struggling to walk. As each week passes, her confidence is growing and she is becoming mentally stronger.
We started this blog as a way to chronicle our experience battling Multiple Sclerosis; to hopefully show Jane’s progress; to show how we’re mapping out the exercises and adapting them; and to give hope to others that might be in a similar situation.
If you know anyone who might benefit from reading our blog please pass it on, and keep the comments and likes coming, it will continue to move us up the Google ranks and hopefully help others. We can’t tell you enough how much we appreciate it.
Thank you so much!
Tavis & Jane
Multiple Sclerosis: Jane's Journey 