HEALTH MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS | JOINT HEALTH | WORK-LIFE BALANCE
MS Closes In When
PHOTOGRAPHY, KEVIN WONG. PROP STYLING, CHARLENE WALTON/JUDYINC.COM.
Canada has one of the highest rates of multiple sclerosis, a potentially crippling disease that can cause an unpredictable mix of symptoms, including crushing fatigue, numbness, pain and fuzzy thinking. And it’s three times more common in women. Are you at risk? BY RHEA SEYMOUR
M
ichelle Hewitt had always been the outdoorsy type—camping, scuba diving and hiking with her husband and their two Bernese mountain dogs in British Columbia’s MyraBellevue Provincial Park. But all that changed, and quickly, when she returned to work after Labour Day weekend in 2008. “My left foot started to feel as if it was burning, like there was something hot on it all holiday Monday. And as the day went on, the feeling moved up my leg and the side of my body,” recalls the 48-year-old former elementary-school principal from Kelowna, B.C.
APRIL 2015 | CANADIANLIVING.COM
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