MS Walk 2024 – YEAR 17

I’ve registered for the MS Walk because I want to show my support for my cousin, Lisa, and for my Uncle Don. It’s the 17TH YEAR of participation for our family! I am happy to serve as Team Captain, and together we are TEAM GROOVUS!!

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2024. Please help us fight for our family members 🙂 Would you like to join us? Donate OR sign up to be on our virtual team – raise some money and on May 4, 2024, WE WALK!

Lisa (a happy wife to Mike and proud mom of Mackenzie and Kelsey) and her dad (my uncle) Don have been living with MS for a combined 40+ years.

We also walk for the countless friends who’ve also been diagnosed over the years. The number is too many. We walk for them all.
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Why it’s important
Having multiple sclerosis means that you may not be able to walk when you wake up. Or that you may suddenly have impaired vision. Or that your memory will fail you for no apparent reason. The symptoms of MS are different, and devastating, for everyone – the only certainty is that it will affect yet another person every hour of every day. 

Why You Should Sponsor Me
Because we choose to walk for those who sometimes can’t, because we choose to donate to the MS Walk, we are getting closer to the hour when no one will have to hear the words, “You have MS.”

May 4, 2024
Year 17!!
Walk MS: Cleveland is a celebration of the resiliency and strength of the MS community.

MS Symptoms

Multiple sclerosis signs and symptoms may differ greatly from person to person and over the course of the disease depending on the location of affected nerve fibers. Symptoms often affect movement, such as:

• Numbness or weakness in one or more limbs that typically occurs on one side of your body at a time, or your legs and trunk
• Electric-shock sensations that occur with certain neck movements, especially bending the neck forward (Lhermitte sign)
• Tremor, lack of coordination or unsteady gait

Vision problems are also common, including:

• Partial or complete loss of vision, usually in one eye at a time, often with pain during eye movement
• Prolonged double vision
• Blurry vision

Multiple sclerosis symptoms may also include:

• Slurred speech
• Fatigue
• Dizziness
• Tingling or pain in parts of your body
• Problems with sexual, bowel and bladder function

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Disease course

Most people with MS have a relapsing-remitting disease course. They experience periods of new symptoms or relapses that develop over days or weeks and usually improve partially or completely. These relapses are followed by quiet periods of disease remission that can last months or even years.

Small increases in body temperature can temporarily worsen signs and symptoms of MS, but these aren’t considered true disease relapses.

At least 50% of those with relapsing-remitting MS eventually develop a steady progression of symptoms, with or without periods of remission, within 10 to 20 years from disease onset. This is known as secondary-progressive MS.

The worsening of symptoms usually includes problems with mobility and gait. The rate of disease progression varies greatly among people with secondary-progressive MS.

Some people with MS experience a gradual onset and steady progression of signs and symptoms without any relapses, known as primary-progressive MS.

Source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/multiple-sclerosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20350269