Grow Stronger Together

In January of 2013, I had this numbness, almost like my calf had fallen asleep. And I remember we were going on a family walk and I remember rubbing it and trying to get that numbness and tingling out of it. And as the days went on, it was about a week, that numbness just got further and further and further up my right leg. I was diagnosed at that time with MS. I was 30 years old. I had a three-year-old at home. And I have a husband who was on a deployable unit in the Coast Guard so gone frequently. And I had just moved across the country. So it was a lot to take in and process. I think I had the best neurologist that I could have had to face that diagnosis. He gave me my first challenge and that was to find something I liked to do that was cardio. And to be getting my heart rate threshold up to 80%. And maintaining that for 45 minutes, 4 times a week. I said OK, I'm going to run. But what I found is that I got to be alone. And I was really able to work out a lot of those emotions. So like any A-type goal setter, I said I've got to get started. So I I'll run this local 5K and that was my first goal. And I did that and I realized gosh, I can run 3 miles plus on a regular basis. Let's step it up and let's do a 10K the next year. It's really encouraging and it gave me something positive to do with my diagnosis. To build strength. To stay healthy. To reach a better level of fitness. I've had a variety of setbacks and some of them big and some of them small. The most disappointing one I've had is when I was preparing for a 10-mile race. I had been tripping a little bit and this time I ate it big time. I went down hard. And so I had just a lot of injury to my knees, to my pride. I knew that something was off with my coordination. I didn't know what exactly, but I knew it was time for me to head to PT. When Lindsay first came in, she was very apprehensive and anxious. She was very scared after her fall. LINDSAY CAMERON: I came to Alison and I said, "Look, I want to do everything in my own physical ability that I can to build this fitness and to build this muscular strength. And I keep tripping." We looked at everything that was affecting her running and then we set up a plan for her. And that entitled a lot of different balance exercises. Some strengthening, range of motion, vestibular retraining. And then we just kind of kept progressing as she got stronger and more coordinated and better balanced. It was remarkable in how quickly I saw positive changes. They really understand it's not just the injury that I have, it's the MS that I have. While on the path to recovery, I became pregnant. And so, obviously, becoming pregnant impacts the goals of my treatment plan and the direction of that. I'm excited for her. She's coming into her eighth month and we're preparing now for the delivery. And then, also, we're looking at postpartum. She's going to be more fatigued, obviously, so how do we combat that? I want to get back to running as soon as possible.