Hi. I’m Melissa Rose: 47-year-old wife, mom, entrepreneur, and passionate advocate for individuals with autoimmune conditions. I have a deep-seated belief that everybody has the innate ability to be fully well and healthy! That each person contains the potential to vibrantly flourish! Helping others to make this happen for them has become my passion and what invites me to continue speaking, teaching, mentoring, and helping individuals through my clinical practice.
My Story From Struggle to Strength
I came to this work through my own experience of being diagnosed with advanced Multiple Sclerosis at the age of 33. As a young mother of 3 young children and owner of 2 businesses at the time, this felt like a death sentence! I had been struggling with various symptoms that, in the beginning, were random and would resolve… until they did not resolve anymore. My first symptoms began when I was 9 years old and continued to wax and wane through my teens and early 20s. By my late 20s and early 30s, migraines were a part of my world daily to varying degrees from pulsing, to causing blindness in one eye and cone vision in the other. My left side was completely numb, and my right side was beginning to follow suit. I was dizzy most of the time and would walk along the walls of my home or from one piece of furniture to another to keep upright. My left leg was minimally responsive, and I would fall often. Holding onto anything with my right hand required intense concentration. I was one scared Momma! How was I going to continue to raise 3 boys like this, much less keep running my business? As it turned out, I sold one business and closed the other because I could not keep up.
During my diagnosis appointment with my neurologist, his words were, “I’m sorry Melissa, you have MS.” His next directives were to choose from two immune-modulating drugs he was suggesting for me to “hopefully slow down the progression”, and go to the medical shop down the street and get a wheelchair along with equipment to handicap my house. He shared that with the speed at which my disease was progressing, I would be bedbound by age 45 and dead by age 50. My brain froze! I knew what MS looked like. My Mom had it, my grandmother had passed away with it. I chose to do nothing, not take the drugs, not get a wheelchair, and simply went home. The next months were filled with deep fear and grief. Grieving the life that I wanted and would never have. Grieving the fact that I wouldn’t get to see my kids grow up, to dance at their weddings, to play with my grandkids and grow old.
Thankfully, that isn’t the end of my story! I began to work with a functionally minded practitioner who helped me unravel what was causing MS in my body. He is still my doctor today, by the way, and I still ‘blame’ him that I can walk! It took me 2.5 years to fully recover, and I have never looked back.
This experience of full recovery from a disease that we are told there is no recovery from fuels my belief that we CAN be well, we CAN recover to a level we can’t imagine, if we lean in and take care of the imbalances in our bodies. That belief is strengthened every day as I work with clients who are leaning in and becoming deeply well.
Two distinct places of choice, I feel, were turning points for me. One was when I chose to not take the suggested immune-modulating drugs. I knew in my deepest heart that drugs weren’t for me. Now I know that they would have harmed my immune system so deeply that I likely wouldn’t have been able to reach the level of sustainable recovery that I have now. The second was when I chose to begin seeing a practitioner. We didn’t have the money. I didn’t know if it would work. But I was willing to think outside of the box and try! I chose to invest in my own recovery. Now, I get to live fully, vibrantly, and with passion, doing what fills my soul!
One thing I want to share with you right now is to pause, breathe deep, put one hand on your heart and the other on your belly. Close your eyes, get quiet, let a smile play around your lips, and ask your body, what can I do for YOU today? How can I love YOU today? And listen to what comes up for you. Maybe it is a sense of peace, maybe it is a sigh that comes out, maybe it is a thought of rest. This is where you begin, by listening to the innate wisdom of your body. If you are looking for a community of people filled with hope, you are welcome to join us at Functional Medicine | Autoimmune Recovery
About the Author
Name: Melissa Rose
Professional Title: Founder and CEO of AutoimmuneRecovery.org and Sagebrush Wellness, LLC
Bio: Melissa Rose, AFMP, CHHC, AADP is an Applied Functional Medicine Practitioner specializing in autoimmune disease, complex illness, mystery illness, and rare autoimmune conditions. With over 1000 clients served, Melissa has established herself as a high-level practitioner for advanced autoimmune clients at Sagebrush Wellness and AutoimmuneRecovery.org.
Website: www.autoimmunerecovery.org
Social Media Handle:
