Friends,

Welcome back Dr Becky Thomas and the physical therapy assistance students from Bryant Stratton College!  It was great to see everyone back again and it looks like we have another awesome group of students to work with this semester.  I love it when Dr. Becky and the students join us as it’s a win / win situation in so many ways.

The students get to learn how people get affected by MS and get to experience how people with MS truly “live” with MS despite the challenges of it.  Our friends with MS get to learn form the students as they get to do what they learn in school “hands on”.  Please allow the students to help you even if you don’t need the help so they can learn from you.  Let’s teach them all we can while we have them here.  Who knows, we could have an impact on their career choice and the direction they take in life.  Welcome back Dr Becky and students!  Dr Becky and the students will be here on Wednesdays for the summer semester.

Electrical stimulation – Laura Davis from Neufit in Texas was here with us last Wednesday.  By the time she left, what kept going through my mind was “Wow!  What just happened?  And how are we going to be able to serve all these people that saw positive benefits in just 5-10 minute treatments?”  Laura and the technology were impressive.  Certainly gives us a new sense of hope.
Some people didn’t experience anything life changing.  Many others experienced doing things they haven’t done in years without pain.  It seemed like people with pain or stiffness, whether it was MS related or not responded well and experienced the most positive and dramatic experiences.

We’re extremely thankful to Wendy and Nino for arranging this trip for Laura and for Laura to make the trip and share her talents, the technology and her amazing personality with us.

If anyone wants to contact Laura directly and see what type of programs they have to offer for in home use like Wendy did, here’s Laura’s card.

We are in the process of getting some people trained to be able to use the Neubie safely at the gym.  We’ll start working with people as soon as we feel we can do it safely.  I have to be honest, using this technology safely is going to take much more training than I originally thought.  We need to learn the e-stim technology and proper settings as well as where to put the pads and the movements to make while using it.  Please be patient with us while we get trained.  This will take a while.  Laura made it look easy but she’s highly educated and experienced at what she does.  My hat’s off to Laura!  We tried to talk her into moving to Wisconsin but we didn’t quite get a committment 😊

A HUGE “THANK YOU” goes out to our donars and everyone who is helping with fundraising!  With the financial help made possible by so many generous and selfless people, we are able to purchase a Neubie Electrical Stimulation machine to have at the gym.  We also have two more e-trikes on order so we can get more people with MS riding on Friday mornings and on the MS bike ride.  We’re also able to continue having Ricky come in and do Tai Massage with people with MS and get our nutrition program with Alison started again.  As you can see, we are certainly putting the donations to great use and many of our friends with MS are making progress weekly.  Thank you to all!

A special “THANK YOU” goes out to our volunteers that come on Wednesdays and Fridays.  Please know you are deeply appreciated by me and so many others.  We are so blessed and fortunate to have you as a major part of our MS-Just Keep Moving family.  We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without you.

Let’s get together!
We’ll be getting together again from 9:00am – noon on Wednesday and Friday mornings at the gym.  I hope you’ll join us!

Wisconsin Metal Parts – Westmound Building
W228N791 Westmound Drive
Waukesha, WI 53186

Prayer Group  We’ll be having our prayer group Wednesday @ 11:00am.

I just love the way we share, pray together and witness prayers being answered weekly.  It’s amazing!  Thanks goes to God and to everyone that joins us.  Let’s get together to share, listen, talk, give thanks and pray however God leads us.

Friday Morning Bike Rides
Finally!  Let’s ride as long as it’s not raining.  We’ll be meeting Friday morning at 7:00am at Nettesheim Park in Pewaukee.  It’s on the SE corner of Hwy SS and Oak Street.  The GPS address is:  N26W27495 Prospect Ave, Pewaukee, WI 53072.  Come a little early so you can get your bike out of your car and be ready to ride as close to 7:00 as possible.  We’ll ride until about 8:45.  Let’s ride and have some fun!

MS Just Keep Caring – Our Caregivers support group will be the first and third Friday of each month from 10:00 – 10:30am.  The next one will be May 20th.  If you’re a caregiver of someone you love with MS, please join us and share your experience of caring for your loved one.  This has been very helpful for many.  Thanks to all who participate!

Nutrition Program – Our next nutrition program with Alison from Wholesome LLC will be Friday, May 27th from 11:00am – noon.  If you weren’t able to make it the last time Alison was here, here’s a link to the handouts Alison had prepared for us.

Here is a link to the PDF from the presentation.

Here is a link to the handout related to foods to focus on adding.

For anyone interested in the at-home vitamin D or omega-3 tests, here is a link to Omega-Quant. They can use the coupon code C69JAGEMEG for a small discount on the tests.

I’m really excited about our next nutrition program with Alison May 27th.  Alison will be demonstrating making smoothies with a Vitamix, the benefits of making them and drinking them.  I hope you will join us!

Tee’d Off At MS Golf Outing Friday, June 10th.  We’re getting closer!  A huge THANK YOU goes out to all who are helping plan and to those who are contributing to this event.  I feel it’s going to be an awesome and memorable experience in so many ways.

We still need items, services or events for our raffle and silent auction at the golf outing.  If you know of any individuals, businesses or services who are willing to donate raffle items or silent auction items to the golf outing please let us know and bring any item to the gym with its accompanying value.  There are donor golf outing information flyers available at the gym that you can use when asking for donations.  We need all items in by June 1.

 

COVID  We’ve all been dealing with this long enough and are very well educated on it by now.  Let’s make good choices and be safe.

Please stay home if you have any symptoms or know you’ve been exposed to someone with the virus.  Please don’t come until your symptoms go away.  Let’s also give each other some space when talking to one another and continue wiping the machines down before and after you use them with disinfectant.  Again…let’s be socially responsible and stay safe!

Our Facebook page is now private.  That means you’ll need to join if you want access to all our fun and progress.  Lots of people are doing more and more and sharing of their journey on Facebook.  Feel free to join and share your experience and comments.  We’re now up to 209 members…awesome!   https://www.facebook.com/groups/2639832389489709

Tai Massage with Ricky Heldt  Ricky will be here Wednesday and Friday again this week doing Tai Massage.  Ricky says he is comfortable to work with you even if you’re not wearing a mask.  Ricky will continue to wear one to protect you.

Many continue making great progress with chronic pain relief, range of motion, walking better and a new sense of hope when Ricky works with them.  Please keep in mind that consistency is key.  Not only with Ricky…with exercise too.  We need consistency to realize the benefits long term.  We want you to have long term relief.

Ricky has a sign up sheet based on first come first serve.  You can pick the time slot that works for you.  I highly encourage you to take advantage of Ricky’s Tai Massages each day and sign up for your time slot as soon as you get there.

Reiki with Linda  Linda will be here on Fridays doing Reiki.  Many people say Linda’s Reiki work is “magical”.  We’re thankful for Linda offering her gifts and talents to us.

Feel free to let Linda know you’d like to do Reiki with her.  She also has a sign up sheet.

Inspirational Humor with Adam Wollert
We’ll be having our inspirational humor zoom call with Adam again next Tuesday.  Adam is a gift to all of us.

Please join us if you can.
Tuesdays @ 1:30PM
Here’s the link to join us…I hope you do!
Join Zoom Meeting with this link

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9431389152?pwd=bWlYbFNaazVnM1M1cWxWMitlODdXUT09

Meeting ID: 943 138 9152
Passcode: 3qP2hu
Phone:   1-312-626-6799
Meeting ID: 943 138 9152

Let’s reach out
I encourage you to share a smile and encouragement with someone.  Perhaps you could call someone that you haven’t talked with for a while just to say hi and see how they’re doing.  We all could use a little extra love and encouragement.

MS is tough.  Let’s have faith, remain calm, be flexible, help each other and learn as much as we can about the challenges of each day as we make good choices.

Let’s keep moving and smiling 😊

In God We Trust…we’re in good hands
Dan

http://msjustkeepmoving.org/

 

P.S.  Sometimes I go out for a walk with my camera never knowing what’s going to look interesting.  Generally, boxelder trees are not too interesting or loved by many.  I walked past a boxelder tree with fresh leaves and buds on it and found some beauty in it.  I just thought I would share.

It’s interesting to look up sometimes too.  Many of us with MS need to be careful when we do that so we don’t lose our balance.  Here’s another interesting picture from my walk this past weekend.  Soon there will be leaves on the trees. Spring is a refreshing time of the year.  Let’s enjoy it!