Friends,
Thanks for using the new walking path around our driveway!
We had perfect weather last week to get outside and walk around. It made my day to see so many people outside using the new walking path around our parking lot. Anne was out there with the students for quite a while.
It was nice to see Susie in the standing machine outside with lots of love and support as well.
Vicki and Brenda were out there getting around as well. So good to see!
Vicki is working hard at walking a mile and continues to get closer to it each week. Way to go Vicki!
Brenda said this was the first time she walked outside in YEARS. Thank you to all who helped her do this along with the Neubie. Sometimes it takes a little electrical stimulation to be able to do this. Brenda walked 100 feet. Pretty exciting and amazing!
While it’s nice to make progress physically, the mental and emotional benefits are huge along with the social benefits of being around such hardworking and supportive people. We are blessed in so many ways.
Rebounding on the Trampoline
It was great to see more of you on the trampoline last week after reading my e-mail about the benefits of it. It was awesome getting Diane on it again last week for the second time. By the time she got off it, she said she had a great workout…which she did!
Again, I would highly recommend you work “rebounding” into your regimen each time you come to the gym. Do yourself a favor and google the “benefits of rebounding”. Or go to youtube and search for “benefits of rebounding”.
Balance and Strength training
Beau was a great sport and had a lot of fun working with the students and Dr Sarah last week. I just love how the students are learning how MS affects all of us differently. You did great Beau!
Strength training on the Rickshaw
John was working hard on the Rickshaw again last week. If you want to strengthen your arms to help you get up out of a chair or be able to shift your weight in a chair, this is a great way to do it. Nice form John!
Students are back!
Dr Becky Thomas, Dr Sarah Andreucci and their Physical Therapy Assistance students from Bryant Stratton College are back on Wednesdays. We are thankful! We have 16 students joining us this semester. This is an excellent opportunitity for the students to gain knowledge about people living with MS and get some hands on experience. It’s also beneficial for us living with MS to learn from the students and their leaders.
Friday Morning Bike Rides
We had another awesome ride last Friday with an Amazing group of people! We stopped in a church parking lot to sing Happy Birthday to Luther 😊 Luther sings to us as we ride.
It looks like the weather is going to be beautiful again this Friday so…let’s ride again!
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!
Again, for those 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.
MS Bike Ride – August 5th and 6th
The MS bike ride will have a new route this year in the Wisconsin Dells area. If you want to ride and haven’t signed up yet, there’s still time to do so. You’re welcome to sign up on our Peppy Pedaler’s team. We now have 45 people signed up on our team and 6 of these 45 are people living with MS. We’ll have fun on this ride!
Here’s the link to sign up on our Peppy Pedaer’s Team https://mssociety.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&teamID=33945
If you’d be willing to support me on this ride by making a donation to the National MS Society, you can do this on my personal page. Here’s the link…thank you in advance for your support! https://mssociety.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=232246
It’s critical we continue to support the National MS Society and all the research and programs they fund. Thanks to all who have supported us in the past. I’m proud and thankful to say that our Peppy Pedaler’s team has already raised over $1,000,000.00. Yes, that’s over one million dollars as of last year. Thank you for your support!
We need to continue to support reasearch so that perhaps one day, we’ll have more answers for MS. These answers are going to come from research. The National MS Society funds the research we need. Let’s do our part by supporting the National MS Society.
Rest, Recovery, Wellness and Safety
We are having biweekly workshops that focus on achieving our fitness goals and preventing injuries. They will be the 2nd and 4th Fridays of each month from 11am – 12pm. Please join us for hands on activities and learn how to rest, recover, be well and stay safe.
Upcoming Topics:
Friday, June 23rd – Dr. Robert Motl will be coming here from the University of Illinois and giving a presentation on the cutting edge of exercise research in MS. The last time Dr Motl was here and seen what we’re doing, he really appreciated it. He will have an interesting and educational presentation. You won’t want to miss it.
Friday, July 14th – To be determined
Future topics could include: emotional health, nutrition, yoga, tai chi, wellness topics, safe use of gym equipment for your body and more. What topics would you like to see? Please let Joan, Traci, Ricky or Dan know
Golf Outing June 30th – Great NEWS!
Our golf outing is filled up with golfers. Thank you to all who are participating in this event! Let’s hope for great weather.
We’re getting some awesome silent auction items and nice baskets for the raffle at “Teed Off at MS”, ePlatinum Health’s annual golf scramble. Thank you to all who donated and solicited for donations!
We are still accepting donations of new items to create raffle baskets. Popular items have included: tickets to sports games; camping gear, picnic items, gift certificates to local shops and restaurants.
Please either bring the items to the gym or let Rick Talbert or Joan Ruffino know about them. We would appreciate your help with this…thank you in advance!
All items need to be turned in by this Friday, June 16th.
Day of Endurance Journey – Progress – Let’s share!
I feel it’s time for me to share a little of my progress as I work towards our day of endurance. If you’ve been following my progress; walking has been tough for me to get any distance. My MS symptoms of fatigue, burning sensations, tingling sensations, neurological pain and balance issues get flared up when I walk. When I first started training for this in January, my MS symptoms would flare up when I just walked a mile or two and then I was shot for the rest of the day.
As you know, I’ve been walking with my camera quite a bit and riding my bike a lot. The biking and walking with my camera has helped quite a bit in the past 6 months. For the past couple months, I’ve been walking about 4 miles and my MS didn’t flare up too badly. Yesterday, I thought I would see how far I could walk before it flared up. I made it 12 miles. My MS flared up quite a bit at about mile 10 and the last two miles were really tough. I was walking very slowly and looked like I was drunk by the time I finished. My MS was bad the rest of the day and all night last night. This morning I got up and rode bike. I was fine the rest of the day.
I’m pretty excited about going from two miles to twelve miles within the past six months. It takes a lot of effort and consistency (working at it every day). To me, it’s worth it. I hope I can continue my journey to the day of endurance without any injuries. That’s why we just consistently and gradually keep building up. I hope you’ll engage in this journey with me, make progress and share it regardless of what your starting point or baseline is.
Please share your progress by recording it on the board. We have some amazing and inspirational progress being made physically along with mentally and emotionally.
Each two-week period, let’s record our longest distance or time of each event we’re working toward for the “Day of Endurance”. Along with that, let’s share a few words about how we felt after our long event for the two-week period leading up to the day of endurance on August 26th. That’s it!
Each two-week period, let’s try to do just a little more than the last two-week period and record (share) it again.
Let’s enjoy our journey…together!
COVID
We didn’t have anyone test positive for COVID this past week. Yeah! It’s still around so let’s not let our guard down and do what we need to do to stay safe.
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!
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 this Friday, June 16th. 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!
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 386 members. That’s awesome! https://www.facebook.com/groups/2639832389489709
Our Facebook page is very active and fun. Lots of people are doing more and sharing their journey on Facebook. Feel free to join, post and share your experiences and comments.
There were some awesome pictures, videos and comments shared again this past week. Thank you to all who are sharing!
Thai Massage with Ricky Heldt
Ricky will be here Wednesday and Friday 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 benefits and 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 sharing 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. Thanks to all who joined us today!
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
P.S. We recently had an opportunity to go to a wedding near LaCrosse (Cashton, WI) in the driftless region of Wisconsin. There are a lot of Amish in this area. I just thought I would share a few pictures from the area. If you ever want to take a beautiful road trip in Wisconsin, I would highly recommend this area. It was a beautiful wedding and weekend with great friends.
I got up early to take in the sunrise. I wasn’t the only one up. This young Amish guy was starting his day too.
We did have a really nice sunrise. I was thankful I got up for it.
There are a lot of horses in that area.
Since we were there for a wedding, it seemed like there was a lot of love in the air. This affectionate little colt loved his Mommy.
And the Mommy loved the little colt as well.
I came across this farm with some sheep. I thought it was pretty cool.
This little lamb seemed pretty friendly.
This is from Wildcat Mountain State Park. With the rolling hills, you could see pretty far. Hi Mike!
It was a beautiful place to hike as well. We hiked in the woods for a couple hours.
We even found a Jack in the Pulpit. Actually, we found a couple of them.
Like I said, if you’d enjoy a beautiful drive, check out the driftless region of Wisconsin in the southwest corner of the state from LaCrosse to Dubuque.
For those 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 enjoy being out there and I also enjoy sharing with you. I know how hard it is not to be able to get out and enjoy nature. Let’s enjoy nature and God’s beauty together this way.