Friends,

Music Therapy

Rick Talbert gave a nice presentation on music therapy for people with MS last Friday.  He demonstrated content for people with MS from https://www.msinharmony.com/

We had a nice turnout for this, shared a few inspirational comments and experiences, had some laughs and engaged in the videos.  Fun!

I would encourage you to check out the MS In Harmony website, watch some of their videos and see if music therapy makes sense for you.  Thanks for this presentation Rick!

Another Dance Opportunity

Since we’re talking about music therapy, that rolls right into dance opportunities.  Ricky and Shirah are offering to do another dance session on Saturday, October 8th.  I hope you will join us!

Just Keep Dancing

October 8th, 10am – 11am

Taught by Shirah Apple, Panadanza Dance Company

Based on the Yes You Can Dance program this class is open to anyone that can dance on level ground including those who need to use a cane, walker or device for assistance. We will start out learning basic dance steps and have a good time. Bring a dance partner or make one at this fun class. Dance helps improve coordination, balance, and social connection while having fun together.

RSVP to Ricky, 414-759-8169 or openlotusyoga@yahoo.com

Organization / Cleaning and Safety

A huge thank you goes out Pam and Laura for getting the organization and cleaning of the gym started.  Thank you Pam and Laura!  Laura will be offering some dates, times and opportunities to help.  If you’re willing to help or know someone who is, please let me or Laura know so she can start some separate communication with the people who are willing.  You can e-mail Laura @ twokuks@gmail.com   Thank you to all who have already responded!

Water at the gym

Please start bringing your own water bottle to the gym.  We have a Culligan filtered water unit where you can fill your water bottle up.  It’s located in the lunch room.

Many people have been very generous and donated bottled water for many years.  Unfortunatley, much of this gets wasted when someone opens a bottle and doesn’t finish it.  Let’s not waste it and use the bottled water when people forget their own water bottle.

Also, please put recyclables only in the recycling containers and garbage only in the garbage cans.  The recycling container is the blue container with the recycling center.  Thank for your coopreation with this!  Let’s be environmentally responsible.

It was good seeing so many at the MS Educational Symposium

Froedtert and The Medical College of Wisconsin put on a nice educational symposium on Saturday.  Rob Multerer from the National MS Society gave a very nice resentation about all the National MS Society does for us.  Good job Rob and thank you for all you and everyone at the National MS Society do for all of us living with MS.

Dr Obeidat and Dr Hooshmand also gave a very educational presentation and had a great panel there to answer questions.  I sure like Dr Obeidat’s passion and respect his knowledge about MS.  Again, it was nice to see so many of you there!

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 and laugh together while we witness prayers being answered weekly.  It’s truly 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.

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 Friday, October 7th.  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!

Friday Morning Bike Rides

Let’s continue to ride as long as it’s not raining and reaches 45 degrees during our ride.  It was a little below 45 degrees last week so some didn’t come.  It looks like we’ll be above 45 degrees this Friday so let’s plan on riding.  Now that we’re almost in October, each week we get to ride together is a bonus.  We don’t have too many left, let’s not miss out on the rides we do have.

We’ll be meeting Friday mornings 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!

Last week we had some pretty cool fog in the sunrise.

Laura looks good on the handcycle.  Beautiful!

Thank you to all the volunteers that come and help us on the Friday morning rides.  There are a lot of moving pieces to make these rides possible and your help is much appreciated.  We could always use more volunteers if you’re available and willing to join us.

For those of you who wish you could join us but can’t; please know we have you in our hearts on these rides.  We’re riding with you and for you.  I hope you too can join us someday.  We really need to get this MS thing figured out.  Let’s keep working on it together.

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 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 261 members…awesome!   https://www.facebook.com/groups/2639832389489709

Thai Massage with Ricky Heldt  Ricky will be here Wednesday and Friday again this week doing Thai 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 Thai 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

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.  Did Ginger tell you her story about getting stung by a bunch of bees a while back?  Her sweetheart husband Ron decided he should get rid of the bees so they wouldn’t sting Ginger again.  He started vacuuming the bees out of the hole they were in.  Little did he know…there were a lot of bees in the hole.

No wonder Ginger got stung so many times.

I had the same thing happen to me a couple weeks ago.  I got stung so many times my body felt like it went into shock.  I was even short of breath from all the stings.  Now I know why they kept coming.  Years ago, they thought bee stings help MS.  Ginger and I can verify that’s not true.  We won’t be bringing bee sting therapy to the gym.

To switch it up a little, we had a cute little squirrel in our tree the other day trying to decide what to do with a walnut.  I’m sure he planted it somewhere.

Did you know Sandhill Cranes change colors when they are out of mating season?  I thought I would share that little fun fact along with a picture of a crane turning silver in our yard this afternoon.

For those of you who can’t get out and enjoy nature due your challenges with MS…my heart is with you.  You are with me every time I’m out there.  I wouldn’t want you with me when I got stung by the bees though.  Like MS, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.