FUMS: Giving Multiple Sclerosis The Finger – Details, episodes & analysis

Being a podcaster can be a lonely life. So what better way to begin the holiday celebrations than getting some of your favorite MSers together to talk about our plans for the season? 

Alongside my guests, we talk about some of the things that can play on our minds during this time of year, particularly when combined with having a chronic illness like MS. 

Dan & Jennifer Digmann talk about how to handle the stresses of maintaining relationships. Ardra Shephard is here to talk about staying fashionable and feeling good about yourself. Then Kathy Chester covers the different ways that you can maintain your fitness and movement schedule, while Alene Brennan talks about the essential stuff - food choices and cooking!

Finally, we all share some of our favorite holiday recipes - link provided below.

Topics covered in this episode include:

• Tools for handling challenging relationships at this time of year
• How to look our best when we're tired, cog-foggy, and stressed? And why should we care?
• How to find the time and motivation to keep moving and exercising
• Tips on how to enjoy holiday food without regret - and making yourself feel worse
• Our favorite holiday food memories and recipes

Full show notes and resources at https://fumsnow.com/fums119/

Brooke Pelczynski's life with Multiple Sclerosis is an inspiring example of someone taking their diagnosis and turning it into something great. Most recently, her varied career has led to her working for Marvel Comics!

Brooke was undertaking her BFA in Illustration in New York when the fatigue and clumsiness that resulted in a number of ruined artworks was diagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis - at the age of only 21. Although she now feels that MS had crippled her career, Brooke has since used her disease to build a career as an artist, illustrator, and comic-creating multiple sclerosis fighter! 

As well as her full-time role providing illustrations for MultipleSclerosis.net, her work - in a variety of forms - has been featured by a variety of clients and publications including Yahoo, Momentum Magazine, Hotel Indigo, Lifewire, and many more. Brooke also worked as a story consultant for Marvel's Darkhawk comic series, using her experiences to inform the title character's own journey toward an MS diagnosis. 

Topics covered in this episode include:

• Brooke's life before her diagnosis with MS aged only 21
• How, after feeling like MS had crippled her life as an artist, Brooke was able to use comic art to build her career
• The way that Brooke's work for MultipleSclerosis.net fits around her "Perfect, shitty situation" - and how she always strives to remain creative, even on her worst MS days (MSiest?)
• How she got involved as a story advisor for Marvel's Darkhawk comics 

Full show notes and resources at https://fumsnow.com/fums118/

Jon Strum's wife, Jeanne, was an avid biker, hiker, and writer when she was diagnosed with Progressive MS. Almost immediately, she became so severely disabled that Jon stopped working and became Jeanne's carer and advocate. He continued in this role until Jeanne passed in February 2020.  

Part of Jon's advocacy was (and continues to be) hosting the popular RealTalk MS podcast. As you'll hear, Jon started the podcast while sitting on a scientific committee as a member of the International Progressive MS Alliance, to bridge the gap between patients and caregivers and the scientific community. Since its launch in 2017 and over 200 episodes later it has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times by listeners in over 100 countries around the world.

Jon's devotion to his wife is moving and unquestionable. But so is his desire and commitment to advocating for all people living with Multiple Sclerosis.

Listen in to my interview with this wonderful man and find out about all the ways that you can advocate for people with MS and affect change!

Topics covered in this episode include:

• The story of Jeanne's diagnosis, and Jon's journey into caregiving and advocacy
• Jon and Jeanne's experiences with health insurance, the impact on their finances, and the heartbreaking decision Jon had to make for Jeanne's care 
• Why Jon feels that people with more progressive forms of MS can feel forgotten by the scientific community, and why he started the RealTalk MS Podcast
• Jon's partnership with the National MS Society
• Things that are on the legislative horizon for people in the US with MS, and how you can get involved and put pressure on your representatives!

Full show notes and resources at https://fumsnow.com/fums109/ 

There are a number of different natural treatments available to improve the quality of life of MS patients

Caroline Craven's road to natural and holistic MS treatments is pretty fascinating. In 2001, she lost the ability to see and walk unassisted while traveling across Guatemala. Upon her return to the US, she was only given a probable diagnosis, but then started to progress rapidly. She was then placed in a three-year double blind study at USC for the t-cell vaccine. During which, she did a deep-dive into holistic nutrition, Ayurvedic medicine, Chinese medicine, and healthy eating.

Now, Caroline promotes healthier living for MS patients through stress management, healthy eating, and having a positive attitude through her blog The Girl with MS.

Full show notes and resources: https://fumsnow.com/fums-020-natural-holistic-treatments-with-caroline-craven

Mindy Eisenberg is a former hospital administrator, turned yoga instructor who’s dedicated to increasing the quality of life for those with disabilities. She does this in loving memory of her mother who had progressive MS.

Mindy is the author of Adaptive Yoga Moves Any Body and manages the fast growing Yoga Moves MS community. In today’s episode she shares her philosophy of healing and the importance of the mind body relationship to health and healing.

At the end the episode Mindy guides us with a beautiful and very relaxing breathing meditation that you can try at home, at the doctor’s office, in an MRI, and anywhere or anytime you need to feel relaxed and centered.

Enjoy this episode, and namaste.

Full show notes and resources: https://fumsnow.com/fums-019-adaptive-yoga-mindfulness-and-meditation-with-mindy-eisenberg

Dr. Fred Ferlic is a man on a mission. He is a recently retired orthopedic surgeon whose career spans 40 years, and 20 of those he spent as the team doctor for both the men’s and women’s basketball teams at his Alma Mater, the University of Notre Dame. He has partnered with the inventor of the TayCo Brace to take this revolutionary product to help millions of people around the world.

He passionately believes that the TayCo Brace can have such a huge impact and help millions of people who are suffering from ankle sprains, ankle fractures, MS, diabetes, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and other injuries to be able to regain their balance and ultimately function in their everyday lives. This brace will allow you to do the three things needed in the 21st century life – shop, drive and work.

Full show notes and resources: https://fumsnow.com/fums-018-an-ankle-brace-to-revolutionize-ankle-braces

Alene Brennan is a certified nutrition coach, natural food chef, yoga instructor, and personal trainer who helps people with autoimmune disease heal through diet and lifestyle. Oh, and she has MS. And migraines. And she learned how to affect her chronic illness positively through diet and lifestyle – and now she helps others do the same through her coaching. She’s really an amazing person with a ton of passion to really help people. It was her tagline that first caught my attention: “less pharm more table!” I LOVE it!

In this episode, Alene shares how she was diagnosed with MS in 2016 in the midst of helping her mother during the end stage of her cancer battle. After her mother passed, she turned her attention to her own battles with both MS and Migraines and found ways to mitigate the symptoms. She started by going to a conference and getting certified in Dr. Terry Wahl’s Protocol, then expanded her repertoire to include the Autoimmune Protocol Diet certification. Yoga and nutrition coach certifications along with a certification as a natural food chef just added the final pieces to the puzzle and help her to serve her community – those of us with an autoimmune disease.

Alene is not a purist in the sense of rejecting western medicine. On the contrary, she believes you need to do what’s best for you and compliment each therapy with the other. Recognizing how valuable her knowledge and experience was, she started a 1:1 coaching business that embraces medication AND lifestyle upgrades to include: diet, exercise, supplementation, stress reduction and sleep enhancement. She has wonderful suggestions for each component of her plan and works to meet each client where they are in their journey – and then acts as both support and accountability partner. She does this right over the phone – no need to travel or leave your home. She stresses the importance of building resiliency and believes that which you focus on, gets bigger – so mindset is another component of her coaching that she brings to the table.

Full show notes and resources: https://fumsnow.com/fums-017-autoimmune-health-coach-alene-brennan

Today I’m talking with Rachael Bubbs and Dayle James, two women who decided to ride their bikes in all 50 states to raise awareness and research funds for MS. They got their National MS Society Bike MS Passports and they’re ready to ride!  BTW – they’re carrying a “champions bandana” with them on all of their rides – with MS warrior’s names on it. So – you could go along for the ride – well, your name could anyway! Learn all about it and how you can get your name on that bandana. Listen NOW!!

Full show notes and resources: https://fumsnow.com/fums-016-2-girls-2-bikes-50-states

Humble, kind, unassuming – those are just a few words I’d use to describe my guest today, country music singer Julie Roberts. I’d also say talented, brave, loving, strong and selfless.  Hers is an amazing story – from a small town in South Carolina where she, her sisters and her mother were victims of domestic abuse, to Nashville, Tennessee making gold records, to a stage in Asheville, North Carolina where she lost the feeling in her hands and her sight went blurry while on stage one evening! That led to her diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis.

That’s certainly not the end of this story:  a Lifetime movie about her life – oh wait, that was put on hold; recording with Waylon Jenning’s son Shooter Jennings; starting her own record label (Ain’t Scared Records) with the insurance money from the flood – provided by State Farm Insurance; surviving a monumental (thousand year) flood and losing EVERYTHING (material); FINALLY (after 5 years) accepting her diagnosis and starting treatment; to recording a new album (“I Think You Know”) and writing a new book due out in September (“Beauty In The Breakdown: Choosing to Overcome“). Whew! This lady is busy. And an inspiration.

Full notes and resources: https://fumsnow.com/fums-015-country-music-singer-julie-roberts-and-her-ms-journey

Katie Collett is an Emmy-nominated news anchor on WAVY-TV 10 and Fox 43, the local NBC affiliates in southern Virginia – where I live. She’s also a wife, a mother, a daughter, a friend, etc. – and she has MS. She’s up at 2:15 am and works from 3:30 am – 1:00 pm! And that’s just her day job. She has a 4-year-old little boy at home too! AND she is a very vocal advocate for MS awareness and a participant in a multitude of fundraising efforts.  She’s pretty amazing – but I think she’d deny that. She’s also really humble and down-to-earth. She tells me all about her first symptoms and how she was diagnosed. We talk in depth about disclosing at work and she offers some great advice. This is a “can-do” woman and she’s got MS in her sites.  I’m really glad she’s on our team. She’s not going to give up until there’s a cure. And she’s got a great FUMS attitude, always looking at the bright side and using phrases like “I’m very fortunate,” “I appreciate life,” and “I refuse to lose.” Hers is an interesting and inspirational story.

Full notes and resources: https://fumsnow.com/fums-014-tv-news-anchor-shares-her-ms-story