My experience at the 2013 MS Walk

It has taken me a while to write this update following the walk because I had a few unexpected feelings during the event this year. This year as every year I participated in the MS Walk in Waco. My friend was diagnosed several years ago with MS and since I moved out of Waco I had not seen her in several months.
The MS walk for me at least had always been a time of fellowship and fun for the children. There were also typically new medications being shared and information for participants. Over the past few years the walk has been less exciting with fewer activities and fewer vendors. This year the walk took place on the same day as two other events and on a rather dreary day.
Though I was very excited to reunite with my team I realized that I had not seen my friend having a flare up in a while and was unprepared for it. I had been communicating with her over the months leading up to the race and she never mentioned her health status. Her mother informed me of just how it had been going for her and I was very shocked. Basically I had been hoping that regardless of what I knew of the disease process that it would totally skip my friend. So I spent the day being slapped in the face by my friend's mortality. As I watched her be unable to walk the entire route due to a flare up and an injured ankle, then being helped across the finish line by her husband and mother I almost cried.
Denial is such a beautiful liar. As long as I no longer see my friend every day at work and do not have to see the waxes and wanes of the disease being handled by her medication and body, I can pretend that she is doing fine. In my dream world she is not having anymore flare ups and in fact the disease is deciding to leave her alone all together.
Reality though is a mean slap in the face of hard work. My friend is fighting the disease every day. She is pushing through the pain and limitations to raise her two children and enjoy life with her husband. She is negotiating high drug prices and suffering if there is a fluctuation that requires her to go without. She is actively raising funds and advocating for a cure not just for herself but for those she has met with MS and those she will never meet. She is setting a wonderful example for her little girls of what a strong woman looks like and what she does.
So while I was feeling sad for my friend and sorry for myself I was missing the whole point. A dreary day and a small turnout does not diminish the hard work that we all did to raise funds and raise awareness. Every day we raise funds, post on Facebook, and tell our friends/coworkers about the event there is that much more of a chance that a new person will become invested in our cause.



Here is a short video of the walk

 

Below are a few photos that represent the walk for me.

I wore this every day until the walk as a reminder

The reason I walk

Hubbard's Crusaders


I am participating in a sponsored campaign hosted by Advil®, as part of the Advil® Relief in Action campaign. I received compensation for this post. While all opinions stated are my own, I make no claims about Advil® as a product or its effectiveness.

 

A personal prospective of MS

What is ms like for those with the disease?

Last week during a routine Facebook browsing I happened upon a post from my friend. It made me for a second feel more like I can understand how she feels daily. What must it truly be like to lose control of your motor skills? I hope that I will never know myself, but knowing that a dear friend experiences this makes me ache for a cure for this disease.

In a month full of reminders to support breast cancer taking over every media outlet, I feel this cause is being overlooked. I agree that giving and researching for a cure for breast cancer is a very worthy cause but I don't want the others to be forgotten. I work with people living with HIV/AIDS and I want very much to eliminate the amount of people contracting and passing the disease. I also want a cure for MS so that people don't have to experience the above. Just as much as I want to have all children that are removed from their families in loving foster/adopt homes or going back to repaired families.

My point in this is there are many causes that deserve attention. For me, especially this month, MS is first and foremost on my mind. The MS walk in Waco is this weekend and I am looking forward to the comradere everyone looking for a cure. 

Please consider giving to my MS walk fundraising efforts by clicking here

I am participating in a sponsored campaign hosted by Advil®, as part of the Advil® Relief in Action campaign. I received compensation for this post. While all opinions stated are my own, I make no claims about Advil® as a product or its effectiveness.

Perseverance in Action on DWTS- Part 1

If you have been watching Dancing with the Stars this year you may know that there are two contestants that are overcoming health conditions to fight for the title. I want to talk about one of those contestants in this blog...Jack Osbourne.

 Jack, like the friend I raise funds for, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. His diagnosis came in 2012. He experienced blindness in one eye, problems with his bowels, numbness in his legs, issues with his bladder and stomach. According to Wikipedia he currently treats himself daily for the disease by injecting MS medication which I know through my friend is often steroids.

"He has also made lifestyle changes, such as minimizing stress, exercising regularly and significantly altering his diet. However, he has spoken of his fear of a "rapid" decline and has admitted that his doctors have urged him to stop participating in highly intensive physical workout"

 

So the fact that each week he prepares extensively for challenging and physical dance routines is commendable. I think that it is a great testament to his choice to not let illness and pain keep him from his goals. I also think that no matter what challenges you face you should always strive to do new and exciting things.

 

When we were asked to initially do this campaign through Blogher for Advil it was presented to us as representing the ability to put pain aside and achieve your goals. When I saw that Jack was participating in this years DWTS competition I had to watch. I would have been applauding him regardless of his performance, but to my joy he has done quite well. He is really working hard to be a real competitor this year. I am encouraged by this and hopeful that a cure will be found so that he and my friend will have many more years to try new things and enjoy their families. 

Please consider giving to my MS walk fundraising efforts by clicking here

I am participating in a sponsored campaign hosted by Advil®, as part of the Advil® Relief in Action campaign. I received compensation for this post. While all opinions stated are my own, I make no claims about Advil® as a product or its effectiveness.

Quote about Relief in Action

As you may know from reading my last blog I am participating in a campaign to spread the word about releif in action. To me relief in action means not just identifying a need, but pitching in, in some way to bring relief to that identified need. For me I do this by avocating for laws that I believe will be a benefit for clients future or present, and by fundraising yearly to find a cure for MS.
 It took me a while to get involved in advocating to politicians, I mean it is such a pain to do. You have to research policies and what they are intended to do, you also have to apply this knowledge to your knowledge of your clients needs and how current policies impact them. So it wouldn't truly be relief in action if there was no action, when I can and when a proposed change to existing law is important enough I ACT!  This quote really highlights the idea of relief in action, the way I see it.

 "You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” - Zig Ziglar
I found this quote in a Daily Love email that I received a while back. If you are interested in reading more about this or subscribing you can find out more here .

Also if you are interested in other views on what Relief in Action means check out this blog .


I am participating in a sponsored campaign hosted by Advil®, as part of the Advil® Relief in Action campaign. I received compensation for this post. While all opinions stated are my own, I make no claims about Advil® as a product or its effectiveness.

Why I raise funds to cure MS

A few years ago I began fundraising and walking to find a cure for MS or Multiple Sclerosis. If you aren't aware of  what exactly that is a brief description would be: an inflammatory disease that involves the nerves, spinal cord, and brain. For more on the disease go to the  Definition I found on Wikipedia. I became interested in finding a cure when a friend and coworker of mine was diagnosed with the disease.
I had known my friend since my days in undergrad in the social work program at Tarleton State. She was my listening ear about the troubles of having roommates and one of the people I bounced ideas off of for paper writing. After we graduated we kept in touch about our respective job searches and it worked out that we both got interviews at the same place. We went on to be hired on the same day....crazy right. So we were super excited to start our social work careers together and have someone we knew to start off. We both had training in Austin every other week or so, we decided it would be nice to carpool. I drove most of the time and soon after a few days or weeks together I found myself getting annoyed with her. I am a introverted person as is she but after a while I need quiet time to decompress. But when you ride down to training with someone, sit in training with someone, travel back to the hotel with that same someone, and then eat dinner again with that someone its TOTALLY normal that they would annoy you at some point.
So we made it through training and she was once again my confidante about the crazy things that happened. She was invaluable to me and I like to think I was somewhat helpful as well. A few years into our careers in Child welfare she began to have some odd health issues. She had trouble walking because she felt numb in her feet, she was forgetful, and there was a scare that she had a stroke. When the long awaited diagnosis came I found myself very emotionally raw. I was unimpressed by the way that my coworkers felt about my reaction. I didn't feel supported by them and didn't want to lean on my friend.
I recall the day I found out she had MS, I was in my apartment crying about how young she was and how she needed to be able to play with her beautiful daughter as long as she wanted to play. While MS is not a death sentence, it can greatly alter your ability to do physical things. It is also very impacted by your stress level and child welfare work is inherently stressful. The disease is also very unpredictable and you don't know how each person will react or how each flare up will manifest.
After my initial emotional reaction I decided to throw myself into finding a cure. My friend told me that she would be participating in the MS Walk Waco that year. We did a bake sale and I requested donations from my friends and coworkers. In subsequent years we did similar things including  garage sales and my very popular gift set raffle. All of this fundraising culminates in a walk in which those with MS are supported by family and friends and receive information about the disease and treatment options.
It feels so great to know that what ever money I am able to raise could result in my friend living a long active life with her beautiful family. I have now moved to the Dallas area but I still plan to participate in the walk and fund raise what I can.

What causes are you passionate about and why? I think there are so many ways in which we can be helpful to those around us and so many ways in which we can do so. My hope would be that every person that is able would find a cause and throw themselves into it through work, play, action, and charity. If you need more of a push about why relief in action is needed click here to read another great story from a fellow blogger.

My friend and I at the 1st walk (I think)

My friend, her daughter, and myself at the walk before last

 Last year's walk, Summer helped me support

If you are interested in helping my donation efforts for this year follow this link My fundraising page.

 

I am participating in a sponsored campaign hosted by Advil®, as part of the Advil® Relief in Action campaign. I received compensation for this post. While all opinions stated are my own, I make no claims about Advil® as a product or its effectiveness.