Hi Ness,
You are truly an inspiration to us all. Thank you! I found the most important thing you said to be: "Positive people and positive comments are so important when you’re trying to beat this thing. I had so many people tell me negative comments about what I would not be able to do. I used to get really angry about this." Wow that is soooo true. Anita--You need to follow Ness's advice on this matter because it does work. I got so sick and tired of negative people (and still do today) that I decided about two years ago to get the negativitiy out of my life. Anita, I too was in your boat (and still am). I now don't care who does or does not believe me as I have to live in survival mode each day...not them. You worry about your state of mind and your health and always have positive things around you. It will really work to do so.

Ness--I had been given John Sarno's book about five years ago (in the beginning) and was clueless about how it worked but after many years of my "journey" I understand how majorly important our mind is over our bodies. I will be reading his book again today just to keep me going. I have tried just about everything over six years and after a fall in the icu last sept (which made the ketamine not work and made me so much worse) I thought I was going to die (and wanted to as the pain was so horribly bad from the fall). I had an amazing gift from God during that time where I asked Him to take me and he said clear as day "No. I need you to stay there because I have more things I need for you to do." That is the ONLY thing that has kept me going. It gave me the strength to go on. In Feb this year I got off ALL opiods and weaned off all pain medication. Yes, I still have full-body rsd but I will not let that control my life anymore. I guess you could say I am sick and tired of being sick and tired lol. I started my own PT program and I went from not being able to move out of my bed to only lately doing 7 mins straight on my exercise bike! A year ago I would have told you you were crazy to think I could do it. Every day I try to do a bit more. As you said yourself it is a very slow process and I know my body is healing. I have done alot of spiritual work over the years and laughter is good medicine too. I am down to three meds and weaning off them too. Also, I should say I have been having iv's of all natural vitamins and trace minerals once every month now (since Oct last year when I was on death's bed) and it is really helping me alot. Thank you for letting us know how you are doing. Who knows...maybe I can meet you in Italy someday and we can both hike there. I would love that. Take care and keep up your great work. It is nice to give us hope as we travel down our journey.
kathy d