Kate Earlier "I have been suffering with laundry list of pain"
For years I have been suffering with laundry list of pain, starting as a toddler, including explosive headaches, dislocations and subluxations, tendon and ligament tears, joint disfunction, intense fatigue, crazy muscle spasms, heart problems, gastro-intestinal problems, issues with all my hollow organs, brain, eyes, sinuses and swallowing. Over the years I sought help from many different doctors and specialists, and finally at age 49, was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, by one of the top specialists in the field, Dr. Claire Francomano. Along with the EDS diagnosis, she also noticed that I had a Chiari Malformation and Tethered Spinal Cord Syndrome. She sent me to other specialists in that area, who confirmed those diagnoses and added Cranio-Cervical Instability to the ever-growing list of diagnoses. A year later Dr. Fraser Henderson de-tethered my spinal cord and added Occipital Neuralgia to the list. For the next 8 years, I wore an Aspen Vista collar, in order to avoid having a posterior fossa decompression and fusion to C1-7 for the Chiari Malformation, because I just did not trust that procedure, based upon other patients' bad experiences.
Over the following 10 years, the diagnoses kept piling on: Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, Neurally Mediated Hypotension, Fibromyalgia, MS, Bi-Lateral Eagle Syndrome, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Chronic Epstein-Barr, Myalgic Encephalitis/Chronic Fatigue Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Natural Killer Cell Deficiency, Coccydynia, Tendinosis, Cystocele, Rectocele, Dyputren’s Contractures, Spastic Esophagus, Gastroparesis, IBS, and Musculocontractural Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which explains the muscle knots all over my body, and in the back of the tongue, diaphragm and intestines, none of which respond to muscle relaxers or other medications. I’ve had 20 surgeries, many of them very unusual. To top it all off, my birth mother died of an Aortic Aneurysm and my birth father died of a Brain Aneurysm in their early 70’s, so I probably have Loeys-Dietz Syndrome, too.
Most recently, for the past year, I was having trouble sitting for more than 10 minutes without developing pain that generated out to the left hip and down the leg, causing pins, needles, weakness and pain in the foot, so I was missing out on most social activities, and in bed 85% of the time but unable to sleep due to the pain. The usual pain interventions were not working, and since I’m allergic to opioids and narcotics thanks to Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, I had to get relief from Medical Marijuana, which is fortunately legal in Florida. Finally, when the pain kept screaming louder and louder, I gave in and agreed to schedule lumbar surgery. During the interim between the MRI and the followup appointment with my Neurosurgeon, I met Sheryl McKanas…and my life will never be the same!
When she taped me across the lower back from hip to hip, I had no idea how DIFFERENT this tape was from other kinesiology tapes. In my particular case, all of the sudden, I started to realize that the pain relief I was feeling in my lower back and down my leg was not just my imagination, it was gone! I shared my experience with Sheryl the next day, telling her how absolutely blown away I was that something so simple was ACTUALLY working! I knew at that moment I wanted to help get this out to people like myself, who suffer so much. I explained my numerous medical issues to Sheryl, and the “miracle” of pain relief that I was feeling for the first time in ages. No matter how hard I try, I can never repay Sheryl for her kindness and compassion. My chronic back pain was gone, my left hip pain was gone, and my leg and foot were starting to feel better and had no pins and needles. I was beside myself with joy for “this vacation from pain” that the tape had brought me.
Over the past 3 months, I’ve learned that Thrive Tape increases circulation to the area in pain, which resultantly improves oxygenation. The usage of Far Infrared and natural Ions in the proprietary formulation Sheryl has spent years creating, is in my opinion, Genius! My deepest gratitude go out to Sheryl and her business partner Michael…because of you, my life has been moving from a predominantly horizontal to a far more vertical one, and I am loving the way the world looks from the vertical perspective! While each of our bodies are different and react differently to outside stimuli, I can attest to the fact that the tape is LATEX FREE and completely HYPO-ALLERGENIC.
I would like to thank Sheryl from every fiber of my being, for not only thinking of putting Far Infrared and ions into tape, but for figuring out how to do it and, thanks to Michael’s expertise, how to make it and distribute it to the people who need it most!