Wednesday and Friday Workouts ‘2023…What’s it going BE’!

Friends,

I hope you had a nice Christmas

Holidays are tough for a lot of us living with MS and our family members. We had to make the best of our Christmas this year and keep it fairly simple.

Last weekend I went to my nephew’s graduation party (from UW Platteville). Crowds and stimulation fires my MS symptoms up pretty quickly. I was only there for about 10 minutes and my legs started their neurogical burning, pins and needle sensations, weakness and pain. Within a few minutes, it went all the way up to my head. I had to leave so I went and sat in the car so my Mom and wife could stay a little longer. Well, I think all of us with MS have bladder issues. Wouldn’t you know it that as soon as I got out in the car, I had to go to the bathroom. It was too cold, windy and rainy to go the bathroom outside and I didn’t want to go back in there or my MS would have gotten even worse. I left to go the bathroom someplace quieter.

Shortly after I left, Bonnie, my wife called and asked where I was. I told her and she said well now we are standing outside in the cold, wind and rain. Not good…I said I’ll get there as soon as I can but it still took me about 10 minutes to get back. In the meantime, my Mom and Bonnie were standing out in the elements. The good news is I had the heater on in the car when I picked them back up. Wasn’t that nice of me? MS causes challenges for way more people than us living with it.

The next day, we had a family Christmas party at my niece and nephews house. I don’t think I was fully recovered from the graduation party. I lasted about 45 minutes at this party and I had to leave again. The same thing, my MS symptoms flared up and I had a hard time standing to go to the car. My sister helped me out. Of course everytime this happens, everyone worries about me. I don’t want to take their joy of the event away from them. Many times, I know it would be better for everyone if I would just not go but that’s not what I want, nor is it what they want. I guess these are just some more challenges of living with MS. We really need to get this MS thing figured out.

I’m not even sure why I’m sharing this with you. For those who can’t get out and enjoy the holidays due to MS, please know that you’re not alone. The holidays can be hard on us living with MS and our family members. I think it’s mostly because we’d just like to be normal and be able to enjoy it with family and friends but realize we can’t. I think this causes stress and axiety and the anxiety fires up our nervous system. As a result, our body physically responds with MS symptoms. If I take a nap before events, I do much better but that’s not always possible.

Other than those two incidences this holiday season, my MS behaved pretty well. The rest of our gatherings were small and I did ok. As we all know, MS affects each of us differently and we need to figure out what works for us individually. That’s not easy.

Thank you for a great year in 2022!

If you joined us in 2022…Thank You! This place wouldn’t be the place it is if people with MS didn’t join us and share their journey of living with MS. I know it’s not easy for many people to get here. I give you a ton credit for showing up and putting forth the effort to do your best with what you have. I don’t live with a lot of fears but one fear I do have is pulling into an empty parking lot because nobody showed up. I’m extremely thankful that that hasn’t happened in the past 9-3/4 years that we’ve been getting together. Thank you for coming! For those who can’t come, my heart is with you and I hope you can join us again soon. Please know you’re in our thoughts and prayers.

If you’re a volunteer…Thank You! It’s absolutely amazing the quality and dedication of our volunteers. We are so fortunate and grateful to have you with us each week. You are truly making life changing differences in the lives of our friends with MS by being here for us and with us. We’ve been blessed with many of the same volunteers for the past 9-3/4 years as well as some new volunteers that joined us in 2022 and all our volunteers in between. Thank you for your dedication, love and service! We wouldn’t be able to do this without you.

If you’re a finacial supporter…Thank You! We have been blessed in 2022 with great financial support. I’m not one to ask anyone for anything when it comes to money but it does take money to do all we do for people with MS; especially when we are doing everything we’re doing for free for people with MS. I’m so thankful we’re able to do what we’re doing for free. To me, it would be morally wrong if we needed to charge people for our services and tell them they can’t come if they can’t afford it. Thank you for your financial support. It’s much appreciated by all of us. I know I can speak on behalf of all our friends with MS that they certainly appreciate your finacial support as well. If you’ve supported us…THANK YOU!

Let’s get ready for a new year

When we were in our inspirational humor zoom call with Adam this afternoon, we discussed a tag line for 2023. Shannon suggested we do something around goal setting and then achieve them. I thought that was a great idea and it falls right in line with our journey leading up to our “Day of Endurance” August 26^th. So far, we came up with “2023…What’s it going BE?” That’s a good start, let’s make 2023 one of our most transformational years yet. Let’s take everything we’ve learned together over the past 9-3/4 years and share it with as many people as we can while we show them we can make progress with MS even though we don’t have a cure.

Let’s choose our goals and share them with each other. I truly believe the more we share what we’re working toward, the more it becomes reality and the more help we get along the way. Let’s write them down and make them visible. There’s magic in writing them down and making them visible. We’re here to help with that. Keep in mind that all our goals don’t need to be physical. They could be social, emotional, mental, spiritual, etc. Once they’re written down and shared, we will find opportunities to help others reach their goals. That’s REALLY rewarding!

Jerry Huhn has put together a starting point for our journey to our “Day of Endurance”. I’ve attached it for you to use if it helps you get started. As Jerry mentions, your goals can be flexible and you can change them at any time during the journey. Traci is putting together a white board to start sharing some goals and making them visible. It’s going to be really interesting to see the measurable progress we make and share on this journey in 2023. As the year goes on, we’ll come up with more ways to share our progress other than just the white board at the gym.

Please keep in mind it’s not just physical progress we’re excited about. If we can help with things like minimizing the fear of living with MS, building self confidence, building friendships, learning more about MS and our bodies, having some fun, getting out in nature, experiencing prayers being answered and having a closer relationship with God, etc., this will be a worthwhile journey. I hope you’ll engage.

Perhaps you want to ask yourself this question. 2023…What’s it going to BE for ME?

COVID
We had one person test positive for COVID again this past week. Bummer! Hopefully she gets feeling better and we don’t have more people get it with all the holiday gatherings this past week.

To all who have reported their positive testing to me…thank you for letting me know and for being socially responsible and staying away until your symptoms are all cleared up. If you do come down with it, it’s important we let people know that you have been in close contact with so they can watch for symptoms and help stop the spread.

We’ve all been dealing with COVID long enough and are very well educated on it by now. I’m not telling you what to do but I’d highly encourage you to wear a mask again if you haven’t had it recently. 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!

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! If we don’t have enough volunteers, please help each other.

Wisconsin Metal Parts – Westmound Building
MS-Just Keep Moving, Inc.
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, January 6^th. 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 ride indoors all winter so we can pick up where we left off next spring. The bikes are all set up at the gym.

\Our Facebook page is private. That means you’ll need to join if you want access to all our fun and progress. We’re now up to 328 members…awesome! https://www.facebook.com/groups/2639832389489709

Our Facebook page is very active and fun. Lots of people are doing more and sharing some of their journey on Facebook. Feel free to join, post and share your experience and comments. Thank you to all who are sharing!

There were some awesome pictures, videos and comments shared again this past week.

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 consistencyto 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 have not talked with for a while just to say hi and see how they are doing. We all could use a little extra love and encouragement.

MS is tough. Let us 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 are in good hands

Dan

http://msjustkeepmoving.org/

P.S. This week I had an opportunity to see some turkeys enjoying some food and time in our yard.