autoimmune

It led to her starting the MS Society, 80 years ago this month. “She went where she needed to go, talked to who she needed to talk to and didn’t take no for an answer and did that because she believed we needed to find a cure for her brother,” says Dr. Tim Coetzee, president of the MS Society.

Lawry's MS Society is now the world's largest private funder of MS research, playing a part in every one of more than 20 current treatments for the disease. It also provides free supports and info to 1 million in the US living with MS and their families. "Think of the scores of people that were impacted by the work she did. It’s remarkable," Coetzee says.

Sylvia Lawry died in 2001 at age 85. “I really believed this would be a short-term undertaking,” Lawry said in her biography, 'Courage: The Story of the Mighty Effort to End the Devastating Effects of Multiple Sclerosis,' by Richard Trubo. “Of course, I was wrong.”

Source and article: www.nationalmssociety.org/news-and-magazine/momentum-magazin...

#MultipleSclerosis #MightyTogether #Caregiving #ChronicIllness #newlydiagnosed #autoimmune #Disability

This Thursday's Ask an MS Expert is about MS diagnosis. Learn what's involved and conditions that can be confused for MS, from a professor of neuro studies. From 10/26/23.

3/26 11AM CDT. tinyurl.com/5cjy3acp

#MultipleSclerosis #MightyTogether #Caregiving #ChronicIllness #newlydiagnosed #autoimmune #Disability

Fatigue, pain, and other unpredictable, invisible symptoms shape every decision of daily life.

For me, muscle spasticity means muscle tightness throughout my body 24/7, causing fatigue and spasms. A lot of our (my wife and I) lives, routine and re$ource$ go toward controlling this one symptom — which is completely invisible from the outside and impossible to even measure.

During MS Awareness Week, I’m joining the @National MS Society in revealing the unseen realities of living with MS.

Understanding and support matter. See the disease for what it is and learn how you can bring us closer to ending MS together:

www.nationalmssociety.org/how-you-can-help/get-involved/rais...

#MultipleSclerosis #MightyTogether #Caregiving #ChronicIllness #newlydiagnosed #autoimmune #Disability

#MultipleSclerosis #MightyTogether #Caregiving #ChronicIllness #newlydiagnosed #autoimmune #Disability

“He picks up on my MS symptoms even before I do," Smith says. He is a 44-year-old resident of Florida, diagnosed in 2011. Colt is his trusty service dog.

“He gets me up in the morning when the fatigue just completely racks me.” Smith grips Colt’s harness when going up and down stairs, using him as both a guide and an anchor. “Colt stays glued to my side when I’m walking and makes me feel more stable."

Read more about the power of supportive pets, and how to get a service animal, at this Momentum article from the MS Society.

www.nationalmssociety.org/news-and-magazine/momentum-magazin...

#MultipleSclerosis #MightyTogether #Caregiving #ChronicIllness #newlydiagnosed #autoimmune #Disability

"Hence all the time I spend on and in bed, snuggled up against my heating pad."

"I don’t have patience for bullshit any more, for things that are meaningless or merely 'extra,'" Applegate writes in "You With the Sad Eyes: A Memoir," just published. She was diagnosed in 2021. "I’ve become an honesty missile. When your physical situation deteriorates, and your life shrinks to the size of a king-sized bed, suddenly all the things you thought were important shift, too."

These excerpts in the Guardian had me nodding my head: Christina Applegate on life with multiple sclerosis: ‘I won’...

#MultipleSclerosis #MightyTogether #Caregiving #ChronicIllness #newlydiagnosed #autoimmune #Disability

#MultipleSclerosis #MightyTogether #Caregiving #ChronicIllness #newlydiagnosed #autoimmune #Disability

For our new members. When you need it, support is all around you.

Go to nationalmssociety.org/understanding-ms/newly-diagnosed

#MultipleSclerosis #MightyTogether #ChronicIllness #Caregiving #newlydiagnosed #autoimmune #Disability

When I was dxed in my early-20s I was clueless and dumbfounded about all the things happening to me, and most of my doctors then were no help. I had years of difficult learning ahead, but this week's Ask an MS Expert can give you shortcuts to becoming an empowered patient in a productive medical partnership with your health care pros.

The program is on 2/26/26 at 12-12:30 p.m. ET. It originally aired 1/11/24.

www.nationalmssociety.org/how-you-can-help/get-involved/cale...

#MultipleSclerosis #MightyTogether #ChronicIllness #Caregiving #newlydiagnosed #autoimmune #Disability

#newlydiagnosed #MultipleSclerosis #ChronicIllness #autoimmune #themig hty #Caregiving #Disability