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Edith Forbes
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Tracking a Shadow: My Lived Experiment with MS Kindle Edition

by Edith Forbes (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 13 ratings
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A memoir of the author’s twenty-five-year, self-designed experiment with a nonpharmaceutical approach to multiple sclerosis and of the indomitable mother who taught her to meet trouble with active resistance. 

When novelist Edith Forbes experienced her first episode of multiple sclerosis in 1993, few treatments existed. The famously crippling disease was a medical mystery, its cause unknown and its course unpredictable. The only medical advice Forbes received then was to “simply live your life.” She had other ideas.

Forbes grew up on a ranch in Wyoming, raised by a widowed mother who met challenges head on. Besides shouldering responsibility for seven children and a cattle ranch, Forbes’s dynamo mother had ambitions to change the world. As a forward-thinking woman in a largely male business, she became a model of tenacity and independence for her daughter.

After her MS diagnosis, Forbes turned her fear into action, immersing herself in the medical literature to search for ideas. Finding an unexpected connection between the medical information and her own knowledge of agriculture, she embarked on a self-designed experiment that continues to this day.

Tracking a Shadow weaves together the story of Forbes’s personal twenty-five-year medical experiment with a memoir of the mother whose constant determination to look for better answers shaped the author’s unique approach to her disease.

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  1. Print length
    136 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Girl Friday Books
  5. Publication date
    March 22, 2022
  6. File size
    3485 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
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  9. Enhanced typesetting
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From the Publisher

Edith Forbes

Gail Nickel-Kailing

George Howe Colt

For von Reyn MD, DSc (Hon)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A] remarkably intelligent and inspirational account of finding a personal path to living positively with the uncertainties of MS. Interwoven with a page-turning chronicle of growing up shy and gay on a Wyoming family ranch is a meticulous investigation of the evolving scientific understanding of MS." —Ford von Reyn MD, DSc (Hon), professor of medicine, Geisel School of Medicine

"Her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis . . . led Edith to conduct a multi-decade research study of a single subject, herself. . . . Fascinating reading for anyone who wants to learn more about how what we eat can affect our health and well-being." —Gail Nickel-Kailing, GoodFood World

"Edith Forbes’s account of her quest to understand a little-understood disease will be useful not only to those with MS but also to everyone making choices in a medical system that doesn’t have all the answers. A lucid thinker, a dogged researcher, and a graceful writer whose sentences are simultaneously lyrical and spare, Forbes shows us how an understanding of one’s illness is inextricably connected to an understanding of one’s life." —George Howe Colt, author of The Big House, Brothers, and The Game

"Nearly three decades after she experienced the early signs of multiple sclerosis, Edith Forbes has written an extraordinary memoir recounting her experiment with an unorthodox—yet successful to date—treatment to prevent the highly unpredictable flare-ups of this potentially devastating disease. . . .There is a lot to learn from this well-researched, highly readable, and compelling account of not only MS but also the state of the US healthcare system and our personal responsibility to act in a way that will benefit not just ourselves but others in our society as well. This very personal account of her experience should serve as an inspiration for others looking for support in facing similar challenges." —Dr. Stephen J. Atwood, MD

"Forbes shares her accumulated knowledge of MS and advocates the importance of personal choice when considering treatment. She is an expressive writer who can deftly pinpoint the emotions associated with having MS . . . a compellingly textured, informative memoir that lucidly examines the medical decisions facing MS patients and encourages a proactive mentality. Sharply optimistic, frank, and inspiring writing about MS." —Kirkus Reviews

"[Forbes’s] wonderful mother, friends, and siblings fill the pages with color and verve . . . If you're an MS patient or love someone who is, I highly recommend this wonderful book. It is a breath of fresh air—an honest portrait of life with this bizarre, confounding, and frustrating disease." —Jamie A. Hughes, writer/editor at tousledapostle.com

About the Author

Edith Forbes grew up on a family ranch in Wyoming. She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in English. She is the author of four novels: Alma Rose, Nowle’s Passing, Exit to Reality, and Navigating the Darwin Straits. Recently retired from her farm, she lives in Vermont.

 

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09BVYHSPW
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Girl Friday Books (March 22, 2022)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 22, 2022
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3485 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 136 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 13 ratings

About the author

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Edith Forbes

Edith Forbes

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Edith Forbes grew up on a family ranch in Wyoming. She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in English. After a short career in computer programming, she abandoned computers for more earthbound pursuits, including farming and writing. Forbes is the author of the novels "Alma Rose," "Nowle’s Passing," "Exit to Reality," and "Navigating the Darwin Straits." Her work is characterized by skillful writing, poignant observations, and quiet yet evocative explorations of the human heart. Recently retired from her farm, she works as a writer and plays as a cross-country skier, gardener, musician, reader, and moviegoer. She lives in Vermont. "Tracking a Shadow" is her first memoir.

Customer reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
4.9 out of 5
13 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Mil Malton
5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Memoir.
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2022
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This is such a beautiful memoir by a very skilled writer. It's both poinant and delightful, particularly for those with history in New England and/or Wyoming, and has useful insights into making choices for an unpredictable illness. The dilemma of making key decisions with limited information is well drawn. Her own study of a diagnosis, an educated but not medically trained person, is admirable. (Particularly as some might just defer to experts, and others might not be able to dwell on a potentially bad outcome.) At the same time, the author's personal knowledge of dairy cow infections and the possible influence on some human illness, may be important for other people and even other illnesses. She does not make any broad claims for others, just shows the reader how she came to her decisions. This book is a treasure for anyone who has had a mother, has had an uncertain future, has dealt with conflicting advice in life, has seen doctors, and enjoys good writing.
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javageek
5.0 out of 5 stars An insightful, engaging, beautifully written memoir
Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2022
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I enjoyed Forbes’s other works, so I thought I’d give this one a try. I did not expect to love a book about MS. But this book is so much more. It’s funny – who would have guessed? It’s beautifully written. It shows us an author who is the incredibly self-aware product of opposites: traditional New England and free-wheeling Wyoming, a methodical (though deceased) father and a force-of-nature mother. This book is about MS in somewhat the way Maclean’s A River Runs Through It is about fly-fishing. And like Maclean’s book, this one will stay with me for a very long time.
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Marc R
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring story and beautifully crafted structure and writing
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2022
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This is a wonderful book from multiple perspectives. It's inspiring how Forbes does her own research and trusts her own informed judgement, and her body's responses to how she is treating her disease. It's intriguing how Forbes weaves her mother's life and personality with her own, sharing tenacity, but with differences in how they each interact with the world. The author is a talented writer and there are places in the book where with a few sentences she deftly paints a complete picture of a person or a place. Highly recommended!
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Dwight Campbell
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2022
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The writing is wonderfully clear and easy to read. Felt a part of the research and felt important people whispering in my ear as well.
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NDK
4.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2022
I enjoyed this memoir. Easy to read and quite interesting. Amazing amount of research done by one person to manage her illness. Quite inspirational!
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E
5.0 out of 5 stars An absolutely brilliant and engrossing page-turner of a book
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2022
Verified Purchase
It felt like both a love story of sorts and a "whodunit" crime saga to find the nature of the MS flareups all executed in a most compelling and super intelligent way. Run, don't walk, to get yourself a copy.
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Mary H. Emerson
5.0 out of 5 stars Wish all writers could use language as well as Edith Forbes
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2022
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A beautifully written memoir combining the complexity of a mysterious disease and a dynamic, courageous mother from a shy person’s perspective.
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John Pappenheimer
5.0 out of 5 stars A private experiment leads to promising theory
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2022
At the age of 38, the author experiences symptoms of MS, a frighteningly unpredictable disease. At the time, in the early 1990s, the prevailing advice was simply “live your life” and “hope that someday researchers will find a treatment.”

The author “like a homing pigeon” heads to a library. Books were necessary companions in her large, Wyoming ranching family. As she explains: her mother was so overwhelmingly busy that her kids often found themselves sitting in a car waiting for their mother to finish her errands and they learned to never “go anywhere without a book.”

The medical library she visits appears to be well stocked with information on MS, but she quickly discovers that the quantity of material is “a measure of bafflement, not knowledge.” She pours over the epidemiology of the disease hoping to notice something the researchers may have missed. She notices (perhaps, because she is from a ranching family) that “MS incidence paralleled milk consumption.”

So begins what she readily admits is “an uncontrolled experiment, with a sample size of one. From a scientific point of view the data was meaningless.” She removes all dairy products from her diet and gets on with her life writing novels, farming in Vermont, taking up contra dancing, the clarinet and a wife, but always under the shadow of a disease that “sleeps but could cripple or kill when it wakes up.”

Along the way we learn about her extraordinary, widowed mother who raised seven children and pursued her late husband’s vision of improving a breed of Red Angus based on practical criteria and careful data collection.

One of the pleasures of this book is how the author in a few sentences, brief anecdotes and encounters with doctors reveals so much about her own quiet character. In half a page she conveys the grief she feels after selling off most of her farm equipment: “Even now, twenty years later, I have a tactile memory of every single machine I worked with: the rattle of worn gears in the tedder, the stiffness of its adjustment crank…” she writes. “…Especially I remember myself on the seat of the 2440 looking back at my towed caravan of bailer and hay wagon, watching my nephew on the wagon alternately stacking the bales and playing games of dodgeball with them as they flew off the spinning belts of the bale thrower.”

In the last couple of chapters, inspired by her mother’s credo of “Get up and do something. Or stay sitting down and do something. But do something,” she offers a credible theory for why a common disease in cows could cause auto-immune flare-ups in people with a common type of MS.
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