Cory Martin - The Yoga Prescription: A Chronic Illness Survival Guide

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

H aving a community to support you when youre dealing with chronic illness is essential. The same is true when writing a book.

Thank you to my family for your never-ending support. Mom, Dad, Cassie, you guys have always been my rock when it comes to dealing with all of my health issues. You let me cry and laugh through every bit of it without judgement. But more than that you never let me give up on my writing, especially this book.

Thank you, Greg, for being my partner through it all.

Many, many thanks to my fellow chronic illness community on social media. I would be lost if I couldnt scroll through Instagram. Seeing a familiar or a new face, a story, or a word of encouragement or commiseration, helps me get through each day. We need each other and Im so glad a place exists for us to connect from the comfort of our beds!

To my yoga teachers, Alexandria Crow and James Brown, who taught me everything I needed to know. To Nicole Sciacca for suggesting I try my hand at teaching in the first place and giving me a yoga home. Oh, Hustle and Flow, how I miss you!

Thank you to my editors who helped shape this book into a better version than it began. Aleks Mendel thank you for pushing me to dig deeper. Deri Reed youre truly the best. You always get my voice and know how to make it shine.

To the guys at Heads of State, Dustin Summers, Jason Kernevich, and Brandon Wherley, your creativity and attention to detail always help a book make a great first impression. To the Book Designers, Alan Dino Hebel and Ian Koviak, for pulling this whole thing together into a book Im proud to share with the world.

And finally, thank you to all my students and readers. You are the reason I keep wanting to share my story.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

C ory Martin is the author of a variety of books including the bestselling Yoga for Beginners and the award-winning Love Sick, which chronicles her life with multiple sclerosis. She is a chronic illness expert for Verywell Health and her writing has been featured on CNN, HuffPost, Everyday Health, Psychology Today, and more. As a 500-hour certified yoga instructor shes taught at studios across Los Angeles and is the writer behind the documentary Titans of Yoga.

To learn more chronic illness survival tips, yoga philosophies and poses, follow Cory on:

Or visit her website:

www.corymartinwrites.com

CHAPTER ONE

The Diagnosis

E very one of us has a diagnosis story. Sometimes it encompassed years of our lives as we struggled to find answers to troubling symptoms. Sometimes it arrived seemingly overnight. Sometimes we had other thoughts on how our lives would unfold, but then the diagnosis was given and everything transformed. The day we were told our lives would forever be changed is a day we will never forget. We might not remember the exact words of our doctor, but we remember exactly how we felt.

When I was 26 years old and had just begun practicing yoga, I thought I knew how my life story would unfold. It would be simple. Girl goes on a mission to get in shape. Girl does yoga. Girl gets fit. Girl succeeds in her career. Girl finds love and happiness. The End. But the get-in-shape part was really just the beginning of a far more complicated story.

In the fall of 2007, after a year of practicing on my mat, I thought I had finally reached that yogic state everyone talked about. I was calm, happy, and I could fit back into my skinny jeans. I thought I was totally enlightened. Okay, not really, because the jeans were Levis and everyone knows that enlightenment comes from True Religion, but all was goodwell, except for one thing.

I couldnt sleep.

At first, I ignored it. I told myself insomnia happens to people all the time. There was no need to be alarmed. I just had a creative mind that never shut down. But the truth was, it had nothing to do with my head and everything to do with my body. Something was not right. As hokey as it sounds, after doing so much yoga, I was very in tune with how my body worked, and this new state was not its normal state of operation.

In the middle of every night I would awake in pain. My arms, neck, and upper back were completely numb, and it took minutes, sometimes hours, for any feeling to return. For a while, I blamed the numbness on a weird sleeping position, but when I started to forget simple things, or things I had known forever, I decided to tell my doctor. During a routine physical I mentioned the lack of sleep, numbness, pain, and forgetfulness. I expected her to give a simple explanation like I needed to eat more carrots, or exercise more, but she was concerned. This is not normal, she said.

She sent me to a neurologist who poked and prodded and tested my reflexes. I was completely freaked out. Could something serious be wrong with me? The neurologist immediately saw that something was off with one reflex, so she drew vial after vial of blood and sent me for an MRI of my brain. After months of tests and waiting around for results, the neurologist finally had some answers.

I believe you have multiple sclerosis, she said.

Are you sure? I exclaimed. I had googled my symptoms before I had gone through all the tests. MS was a possible explanation but I didnt believe it could happen to me.

I can start you on a drug now or you can see a specialist and get a second opinion, she said.

I chose the specialist, not because I thought she was completely wrong, but because in that moment I didnt want her diagnosis to be true. I wanted to put off my reality. A reality that took me from being a completely happy 27-year-old girl who had discovered this cool new workout fad called yoga, to being told there were five lesions on her brain and the only explanation for them was multiple sclerosis, an incurable and potentially disabling disease.

I left the office in shock. Multiple sclerosis? The answer I received was not what Id expected. When I returned home, I dissolved onto the floor of my apartment in tears.

Multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis. The words of the neurologist echoed in my head, over and over. I clenched my fists and pounded the carpet. I curled up into a ball on the floor. I did what I could to make it go away, but it wouldnt leave. I wanted to hurt someone or something. I was pissed and I was in a spiritual state called: Whatthefuckishappeningtomeisthisshitforreal?

I cried out into my empty living room. My sobs were incomprehensible, but my heart was translating. Yoga wasnt supposed to lead me here. I was supposed to get happy. I was supposed to get in shape. I was supposed to have a great career. Instead, Id been screwed by Sanskrit. The truth hadnt set me free, it had only brought me bad news.