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Tracking a Shadow: My Lived Experiment with MS
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 “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.
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.
136 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 22, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 14, 2022
Unlike cancer or other diseases, there aren't a lot of books about multiple sclerosis on the market today. And the ones that are out there all tend to focus on the more shall we say "challenging" end of the spectrum: primary progressive and secondary progressive. (If you're not aware, MS can take one of several forms, which you can read about here -- https://www.nationalmssociety.org/Wha...).
I am an MS patient who has had the disease for eighteen years, and my doctors have decided that I have what is known as relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). That means I have relapses every so often, and those relapses end with a period of recovery (or remission). RRMS can also be further divided into worsening (meaning each exacerbation gets stronger) or non-worsening (meaning each exacerbation is about the same). I, thankfully, have the version of RRMS that is non-worsening, which means that over the last eighteen years, I have had about three exacerbations, but none of them have been terribly damaging. My doctor says I have a very "clean brain." :-) If you're interested in reading more about life with MS, please check out my bi-weekly column at https://multiplesclerosisnewstoday.co....
So my version of the disease doesn't get a lot of attention, certainly not an entire book devoted to it. However, that's exactly what Edith Forbes has done in this medical memoir. She tells the story of her life as she has lived it with her version of RRMS and what she has done to combat it. It was so refreshing to read a narrative that was much closer to my lived experience, and she brings in so many other interesting details from her life and the lives of her family members that I feel like I know them all intimately. Her wonderful mother, friends, and siblings fill the pages with color and verve that made this one a friendly, approachable, un-put-downable book.
She also shares some of the medical research she has done regarding diet, nutrition, and exercise and shares what has worked for her as an MS patient. She believes dairy products were at least somewhat responsible for her exacerbations, so she cut out all dairy products entirely. (I, for the record, ADORE cheese. In fact, I've begun eating more cheese as I get older, so thankfully, I don't think milk is the reason for my condition. I also have plenty of vitamin D in my body, which some other patients blame their illness on. Again, it totally varies by patient!)
So if you're an MS patient or love someone who is, I highly recommend Ms. Forbes' wonderful book. It is a breath of fresh air--an honest portrait of life with this bizarre, confounding, and frustrating disease. Reading medical information online about MS is an exercise in terror and sorrow. (Ask me how I know!) But books like these help you realize you can learn to live -- and to even live well -- with this condition. It isn't the end, just the beginning of a new normal. Brava!
I am an MS patient who has had the disease for eighteen years, and my doctors have decided that I have what is known as relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). That means I have relapses every so often, and those relapses end with a period of recovery (or remission). RRMS can also be further divided into worsening (meaning each exacerbation gets stronger) or non-worsening (meaning each exacerbation is about the same). I, thankfully, have the version of RRMS that is non-worsening, which means that over the last eighteen years, I have had about three exacerbations, but none of them have been terribly damaging. My doctor says I have a very "clean brain." :-) If you're interested in reading more about life with MS, please check out my bi-weekly column at https://multiplesclerosisnewstoday.co....
So my version of the disease doesn't get a lot of attention, certainly not an entire book devoted to it. However, that's exactly what Edith Forbes has done in this medical memoir. She tells the story of her life as she has lived it with her version of RRMS and what she has done to combat it. It was so refreshing to read a narrative that was much closer to my lived experience, and she brings in so many other interesting details from her life and the lives of her family members that I feel like I know them all intimately. Her wonderful mother, friends, and siblings fill the pages with color and verve that made this one a friendly, approachable, un-put-downable book.
She also shares some of the medical research she has done regarding diet, nutrition, and exercise and shares what has worked for her as an MS patient. She believes dairy products were at least somewhat responsible for her exacerbations, so she cut out all dairy products entirely. (I, for the record, ADORE cheese. In fact, I've begun eating more cheese as I get older, so thankfully, I don't think milk is the reason for my condition. I also have plenty of vitamin D in my body, which some other patients blame their illness on. Again, it totally varies by patient!)
So if you're an MS patient or love someone who is, I highly recommend Ms. Forbes' wonderful book. It is a breath of fresh air--an honest portrait of life with this bizarre, confounding, and frustrating disease. Reading medical information online about MS is an exercise in terror and sorrow. (Ask me how I know!) But books like these help you realize you can learn to live -- and to even live well -- with this condition. It isn't the end, just the beginning of a new normal. Brava!
May 1, 2023
So well written. My favorite of the "ms books" I've devoured since my diagnosis two months ago. I finished this in 2 days in part because the subject matter is of high interest to me right now, but more so because it is just a good book. The author weaves together a loving memoir of the strong mother who raised her, amidst all the tragedies and difficulties life had thrown her way, with her own story of how she fought ms using the determination she learned from her mother.
I also found it very interesting that her "cure" was to eliminate milk from her diet. Oddly, two months before I had my first MS attack, I had eliminated milk from my diet (for gut health). I wonder if this will help me going forward.
If I were to have one criticism it would be the author's information on the MS drugs available - she seems to lump together two very different types of medicine. She says there were two types - one type was interferon and the other was Copaxone. She sort of explains their differences but not very clearly and then she lumps Copaxone in with the interferon's side effects, which from my understanding, is wrong. Copaxone is completely different than the interferon drugs and works by mimicking myelin sheath so your body attacks it rather than your body's myelin. There are virtually no side effects concerning immunity because it doesn't interfere or suppress your immune system at all.
Despite that minor annoyance (mainly because it could lead others astray), I love this book.
I also found it very interesting that her "cure" was to eliminate milk from her diet. Oddly, two months before I had my first MS attack, I had eliminated milk from my diet (for gut health). I wonder if this will help me going forward.
If I were to have one criticism it would be the author's information on the MS drugs available - she seems to lump together two very different types of medicine. She says there were two types - one type was interferon and the other was Copaxone. She sort of explains their differences but not very clearly and then she lumps Copaxone in with the interferon's side effects, which from my understanding, is wrong. Copaxone is completely different than the interferon drugs and works by mimicking myelin sheath so your body attacks it rather than your body's myelin. There are virtually no side effects concerning immunity because it doesn't interfere or suppress your immune system at all.
Despite that minor annoyance (mainly because it could lead others astray), I love this book.
March 27, 2022
I'm rounding up, and this is one of many occasions when I dearly wish Goodreads provided either half stars or a ten-point scale.
This book blends memoir with medical detective work of a very personal kind. Forbes brings a fortuitous blend of experiences and skills to the task of investigating the possible connection, for herself and potentially for some (not necessarily all or most) other MS patients, between dairy in the diet and an increase in MS symptoms. Forbes has a lifelong familiarity with cattle and dairy products; the example of a mother who forged her own path with determination and persistence; and a highly intelligent, scientifically oriented mind suited to researching and comprehending data, ranging from chemistry to biology to epidemiology.
Her writing is both delicate and precise, a match for the meticulous and measured way in which she recounts and summarizes her research.
This book blends memoir with medical detective work of a very personal kind. Forbes brings a fortuitous blend of experiences and skills to the task of investigating the possible connection, for herself and potentially for some (not necessarily all or most) other MS patients, between dairy in the diet and an increase in MS symptoms. Forbes has a lifelong familiarity with cattle and dairy products; the example of a mother who forged her own path with determination and persistence; and a highly intelligent, scientifically oriented mind suited to researching and comprehending data, ranging from chemistry to biology to epidemiology.
Her writing is both delicate and precise, a match for the meticulous and measured way in which she recounts and summarizes her research.
January 28, 2022
When I got this book I thought I was going to be reading about MS and how it affects the person who has it, their family, and their life. Instead, this was a story about a woman who did her own in-depth research, changed her diet and her way of life, ignored the doctors and their promise of minimal help, and live a full life with fewer flares and debilitation from MS than any other MS patient she met. It is a look an unorthodox behavior a deep understanding of self, and belief in a better way that paid off for Edith Forbes.
July 17, 2025
Another child of Wyoming writes about her unique experience with MS. Lucky for her, it’s a tale much milder than my own. Just goes to show, climate or cows, causes or cures, this mercurial disease remains mysterious. I’m glad Edith Forbes can manage her disease with only diet and lifestyle alterations. I’m even more glad that medicine has advanced enough to provide the necessary treatment that I - and so many others - rely on to survive.
January 26, 2023
Great book, a firsthand account of experiencing multiple sclerosis (MS). She interweaves her family, her wife, her jobs, her residential areas, her parents’ cattle farm, her childhood, her own questioning and research into MS, all neatly packaged nicely to deliver her personal, psychological, and emotional journey.
July 28, 2025
So interesting and thought-provoking. What a fascinating mind! Approachable, straightforward, but also engaging. You can tell this book is service-oriented. I hope the right people read it so it reaches its potential to do good in the world.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews