Kristine Werner Ozug

I’ve always been curious; I ask one more question, read one more article, and want to understand not only what happened but why and how.

That likely explains why, after experiencing five years of unexplained symptoms, I arrived at an MS specialist’s office carrying a stack of medical research papers and journal articles.

I walked out with an MS diagnosis.

I have continued to research MS ever since.

Some years have been very difficult, but the hardest loss for me was my career. I had always been an overachiever. I loved my job, solving problems and leading teams, and I had built a career that took me around the world. When cognitive changes and MS-related fatigue made it impossible for me to continue working, I lost a major part of how I understood myself and how I believed others saw me.

For a long time, I struggled with whether I was still relevant.

It turns out I still am in the ways that matter.

I remain curious, enjoy solving problems, and am eager to understand complex things and contribute meaningfully. I just needed to figure out what that was going to look like.

That’s a big part of what brought me to RealTalk MS.

I love the science of MS, but what interests me most is how it intersects with and impacts real life. What does a new study mean for people affected by MS? Are we measuring what matters to people living with MS? What aren’t we talking about? Who would the MS community want to hear from?

I’m still the person who shows up with the stack of research, still asking one more question.

The difference is that now I get to help ask those questions and find the people who have the answers, so RealTalk MS can deliver the information to you in plain, easy-to-understand English.