Living With MS Episodes

Welcome to Episode 100! In this special episode, we're talking with Jodi Michele Cooley, the winner of our "Be Our Special Guest on Episode 100" contest! At the age of 7, Jodi became an MS caregiver. And at the age of 34, she received her own MS diagnosis. In one way or another, MS has almost always been a part of Jodi's life. And yet, she is the very definition of the word "resilience." We're also re-visiting some of the best moments from some of our most popular interviews. You'll hear about ...

Applying for social security disability benefits can be difficult. It's a stressful and challenging process with an outcome that seems fraught with uncertainty. My guest, Jamie Hall, has represented social security disability claimants before administrative law judges and the Appeals Council in 24 different states. He is also a strong supporter of the National MS Society, where he's conducted numerous seminars on social security disability issues. Jamie is a member of the MS Society's 2010 Lead...

My guests this week are 2 exceptional MS warriors, Mike Zimits and Cat Tsigakos. When Mike was diagnosed with MS, he decided he could best help himself by getting into shape, so he got on a bike. And then he convinced his friend's sister, Catherine, to get on a bike. Cat was serving as her brother's caregiver after he was diagnosed with progressive MS. So these 2 people, who had each been affected differently by MS, went from being biking newbies to avid cyclists -- even taking on several stage...

How do you adjust every aspect of your relationship when the partner you've known seems to be vanishing right before your eyes, yet they're still very much there? If you're a caregiver for someone with progressive MS, or any chronic illness, it's very likely that you're living with the trauma of ambiguous loss. My guest is Dr. Pauline Boss, who not only coined the phrase ambiguous loss, but has spent her career teaching university students, practicing as a clinician, and training family therapi...

The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America, or MSAA, provides programs and resources designed to improve the lives of people affected by MS. Whether it's financial assistance for an MRI exam, a new computer, mobility equipment, or even a cooling vest, the MSAA can help. My guest today is Gina Murdoch, the President and CEO of the MSAA, and we're talking about the organization's almost 50-year history, their shared management philosophy of living with MS, and we're taking a deeper dive into i...

I get a lot of listener questions about exercise and MS. And a lot of those questions come from people living with progressive MS, wondering whether the conversation about physical activity and MS applies to them. My guest this week is Dr. Lara Pilutti, an expert in the role of exercise in the management and treatment of disability arising from multiple sclerosis. We're talking about how you want to be thinking about exercise and why you want to be thinking about exercise, whether you're living...

My guest this week is Yvette Brisco. Yvette is an MS activist and an MS warrior. And when Yvette talks about the fight to find a cure, she means it literally! We're also talking about the European Medicine Agency's safety review of Lemtrada. We'll tell you about the 20 million American caregivers who are performing medical or nursing tasks for which they've received no training. We'll give you a real-world example of why people living with MS (or anyone else) living in a care facility need an a...

We're at a point in time when there's a tremendous amount of interest as well as confusion surrounding cannabis-based treatments for MS. My guest is Aryn Sieber, the CEO and Founder of the CannaCauses Foundation and Cannaisseur Brands. Aryn is a strong advocate of using cannabis-derived treatments to help relieve symptoms of disease processes, particularly MS. And he's partnered with MS centers and neurologists to better understand how cannabis-based treatments can help people manage their MS s...

In less than a decade, Meat Fight has actually grown from a backyard barbecue to a non-profit organization that hosts several different fundraising events, offers some unique programs for people affected by MS, and has raised more than $1 million dollars for the National MS Society. My guest today is Alice Laussade, the creator of Meat Fight, and the very definition of a real MS Warrior. We're also talking about a new research initiative to investigate cannabis and MS. We'll tell you about the ...

If someone is being treated for MS, their neurologist is using the Expanded Disability Status Score, or EDSS, to indicate their level of disability. What if there were a better, easier, and more accurate way to measure mobility and evaluate disability? My guest today is Dr. Valerie Block, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Neurology at University of California San Francisco. As a physical therapist, Dr. Block is focused on MS rehabilitation. And we're talking about a just-published stud...