Happy Thanksgiving!
Despite our challenges of living with MS, we have many blessings in our life to be thankful for; wouldnāt you agree? Letās dedicate some time and conscious energy being thankful this week of Thanksgiving. Iām thankful for you!
Congratulations to āDrā Becky Thomas! Letās give Dr Becky some high fives, hugs and congrats as she has completed her doctorate degree in physical therapy this past weekend. Way to go Dr Becky! Weāre all proud of you and thankful for you and your students who are part of our family.
Weāll be doing laughter yoga Friday. Do you remember the last time we did laughter yoga? If you were here, you wouldnāt have forgotten it. We had lots of laughs! My sister Michelle and her friend Nancy will be coming from Madison and volunteering to join us Friday to do some more laughter yoga with us. Be sure to join us and learn about the health benefits of laughter. Weāll be doing this from 10:30am -11:30am so if you want to do other exercise, come early or stay later.
Save the date: Our annual thank you party for our volunteers and Christmas party will be Friday, December 20th. Chris will be bringing a sign-up sheet to give you an opportunity to bring a dish to pass. Iām extremely thankful for all our volunteers and our friends with MS who join us and share their journey.
MS Educational opportunities coming up:
- National MS Society
- MS Breakthroughs is coming up Dec 7th. This event began last year and replaces the MS Summit that used to occur every March. Itās free to participate. Here is a link to register. https://secure.nationalmssociety.org/site/Calendar?id=366726&view=Detail
- Amy Lewis from Novartis Pharmaceutical stopped by and dropped off some information about an interactive educational program on Mayzent in Milwaukee and Madison in December. Please see the brochures on the table in the gym for more information. Free food and education.
Last week, Carol brought an AARP article in and said this really makes sense for us living with MS and fighting inflammation. I read the article and I agree. Hereās a link to the article, Iād highly recommend reading it. https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2019/lowering-inflammation-to-improve-health.html
Youāre probably wondering how the Alinker worked last week. We have a medium size which is too tall for many people. The tall people thought it was awesome, especially Nancy when she finally got to go for a walk with Donna.
I always love it when people who canāt normally walk get to walk with each other. If thereās a will thereās a way, right? We sure have the will with our friends with MS, donāt we? If you want to ride the Alinker, go for it! Ask a volunteer if you need some help. Theyāre here to help.
We have many blessing in our lives. Weāll be getting together again Wednesday @ 11:30 for our prayer group. Weāll be giving thanks to God for our blessings and praying however God leads us. Wow! Iām hearing some powerful comments about this time together. Feel free to join us. If you need to come in a little early to get your exercise in before this starts, feel free to do so.
We all need to āJust Keep Movingā! It doesnāt matter where we start. We can start with laughing which is great exercise in itself. Other than that, we start with the body parts that will move and keep moving them as much as we can. Let them rest and then move them again.
I know there are still many of us going through other life challenges in addition to our challenges with MS. Letās stick together, keep our chins up and keep sharing our journey. Better days are ahead. For those of you who havenāt been able to make it by us on Wednesdays and Fridays lately, please know you are missed and in my thoughts and prayers. I hope youāre able to make it back soon!
I hope youāll join us both Wednesday and Friday again this week. Rememberā¦consistency is key. With MS, it takes a lot of consistent effort every day to make small improvements. Yes, itās frustrating so be patient and consistent and youāll be amazed how your quality of life will continue to improve. Itās been about 17 years of exercising just about every day for me and Iām still making improvements (encouragement, love, support, nutrition and proper rest help immensely too). It takes time so please be patient. It sure is better than MS getting worse. I really donāt know what my life would be like if I didnāt do this (nor do I want to find out). Iām so thankful you are all joining me on this journey of making progress with our MS and quality of lifeā¦THANK YOU! Weāll continue to learn togetherā¦thereās so much power in the love and support we all share with each other.
In the past, Iāve been telling you to bring a friend. Unfortunately, weāre going to need to start a waiting list for new people. Please feel free to continue to share your experience and what weāre doing together. Let me know of anyone who would like to join us. Iāll communicate with these people through e-mail or phone and help them any way I can. When we have room for them to join us, Iāll encourage them to do that. If youāve joined us in the past, please continue to join us.
We are here to help you and anyone with MSā¦no strings attached (well maybe an occasional story about the progress youāre making, smile, high five or a hug). I remember how challenging life used to be when my MS was bad. I get great joy sharing what Iāve learned and feel blessed with the progress Iāve made. I hope you make progress in some way too!