S1E4 Build Your Dream MS Wellness Team Without Breaking the Bank.mp3

One day it's the fatigue, the next it's brain fog. The following week, something feels off in your leg and you don't know if it's something random that'll just go away on its own or if it's the start of something bigger with MS. You carry a heavy weight every single day when you're living with the unpredictable symptoms of this invisible disease. That's exactly why you need your MS wellness team. You need an entourage of people to support you along your journey. So let's talk about who should be on your dream team and how to get them without breaking the bank. And my fellow MS sisters, if you want a more personalized approach to creating your MS diet and lifestyle, check out my private coaching program. It includes a comprehensive assessment, personalized strategies, and lifestyle support. Each month, I only accept three new clients. So if you're interested, apply now at Alenebrennan. com/ backslash coach. Now on to today's episode.

MS is complicated. I don't need to tell you that you're living with it every single day. You're like an Olympic-level athlete that is running a long race. And what's one thing we know about the most successful athletes? They have a team of powerful trainers and experts behind them, helping them to perform their best each and every day. That's exactly how I want us to start thinking about running our race with multiple sclerosis. We aren't expected to do this on our own. So if you've been telling yourself that story, here's your chance to let go of that lie.

Now let's dive into each expert and I'm going to give you some recruiting and quote unquote hiring tips to help you find the one that best fits your needs. And of course we have to find ways to build your MS wellness team into your budget as well. So I'm going to offer you some cost-saving tips along the way. All right, first up, You're a neurologist. MS affects the brain, so we have to start with a good neurologist. I know I'm diving straight into the belly of the beast. I say it this way because I know it can be a sore spot for many of us. Finding a good neurologist feels as rare as finding a unicorn. You don't feel seen. You don't feel heard. And you feel like you're being intimidated and dismissed.

Some of you feel like you'd rather not even bother. I know the frustration. Trust me, I know the frustration. I've had countless disappointments here too. But MS affects the brain, so we need a neurologist on our team. We need a neurologist who can order MRIs, give us clinical recommendations, track our progress over time, prescribe medications, give us scripts and referrals for services and support that we need over the years of managing MS. If you already have a great neurologist, consider yourself amazingly lucky and consider your first hire of your MS wellness team done. If you don't, I want to offer you two suggestions, two perspectives that have really helped me over the years. First, keep in mind that the neurologist is just one player on your team.

You will have other players who can help fill in the gaps where your neurologist may fall short. For example, if you're constantly asking about nutrition questions and getting nowhere with them. It's time to recognize that they likely won't change their perspective on it, but it doesn't mean you need to close the door on creating an MS diet for yourself. That can be filled through a nutrition coach. Or maybe they're constantly dismissing that sensation that you keep telling them about in your leg And they tell you that it's not MS related, but you're not fully convinced. That's one that maybe you shift over to a physical therapist. I guess my point is that a neurologist is a non-negotiable player on your team, but they're also not the end-all be-all either.

The other thing to keep in mind is that you can look for a second or even a third opinion. You shouldn't feel locked into any one doctor if they're not a good fit for you. So let's talk about how to find the best fit for you. I start with recommendations. Who might be able to offer a recommendation for you? Is there a local MS support group where you can connect with others who can share their recommendations? Can you ask your primary care doctor or another current doctor of yours that you really trust and feel would give you a good recommendation? If you can't get any recommendations, start exploring the options in your area. Do any local hospitals have neurologists that specialize in MS? Start looking online and checking online reviews. Check with your insurance company which neurologists are covered under your current insurance plan. Schedule an appointment and see if they're a good fit for you. And lastly, remember that there are often several doctors within one practice.

Annual appointments but during all the other days in between, you can work with the nurse practitioner in the office if that's more appropriate. My point is that there are always options to get creative to make this work for you, but make sure that you have a neurologist on your team. Next up, your primary care doctor. Think of this person as your home base for general health needs. With MS, there are so many symptoms and factors to manage, but there's also a lot of everyday health stuff. So you want someone who understands both sides of the equation. Thankfully, you have many more options in finding a good primary care doctor.

expense of a functional medicine doctor. So there's your first cost-saving tip. And that's a big one. I know many of you would love to work with a functional medicine doctor. And it's easy to tell yourself that they would be the gateway to you having this big transformation with managing MS. And maybe you would get a transformation that you wouldn’t with somebody else. But I know many of you would love to have a functional medicine doctor, but the cost holds you back. They often don’t accept insurance and they have really high costs for appointments, testing, and supplements, and it’s just not within your budget. So you may tell yourself this lie that if only you could afford a functional medicine doctor, then you would be able to have this big transformation with managing MS.

I’m not saying that their services aren’t valuable. They’re incredibly valuable. But if it's not within your budget, it's time to shift your focus to see how you can best fill that gap. And finding a primary care doctor that's a DO is a great way to help bridge this gap. And as always, with every practitioner, ask for recommendations, especially from those that have a similar health mindset as you. Now let's talk about your eye doctor. MS is notorious for its unpredictability, and sometimes it can manifest in ways that affect your vision. That's where a dedicated eye doctor steps in. Optic neuritis, inflammation of the optic nerve, is a really common symptom for many of us living with MS. It can cause pain and even temporary vision loss.

We can experience double vision, involuntary eye movement. I know, lucky us. It's scary to say, trust me, I know, but we have to recognize that these are potential possibilities and having the right people on our team can help us jump ahead of them. Now, while a neurologist can provide insight on many of these symptoms, having an eye doctor on your team provides specialized attention to the health of your eyes. Now, personally, I love my eye doctor, and I was trying to think back on how I even found him. I think he was a recommendation from a coworker years ago, but I just love his demeanor.

That's really important to me. So for me, this was a good fit and I've stuck with him for years. Um, but he wasn't my first eye doctor. I had to go through a couple other ones to find him. Now for you, if you're looking for somebody, obviously you want to start with, um, insurance because that's going to really help with managing costs. See who is within your insurance plan. If you don't have insurance, then maybe you call around and see

of addressing any vision issues that you may not feel like are fully addressed with your neurologist, or maybe you just like having that extra layer of protection. That's the camp that I fall into. It really just takes the pressure and expectations off of my neurologist of filling every single need. My neurologist always does the standard eye exam with me, but I lean more on my eye doctor to talk about my vision and eye health in the context of MS. Now let's dive into a physical therapist. With MS, our bodies sometimes throw us curveballs. Let me state the obvious: maybe it's stiffness, numbness, weakness, heaviness, balance issues, mobility. I know I could go on and on and on, right? They can gradually build or they can appear out of nowhere. While we can't always predict these symptoms, we can certainly help to address them. This is why having a good physical therapist is key.

A physical therapist familiar with MS is a gem. They understand the unique challenges that we face and can offer specific strategies to help you navigate them. Maybe it's exercises to improve your balance or stretches to ease tight muscles, which by the way, did you know that nearly everybody diagnosed with MS will develop shortened muscles, specifically the glutes, hamstrings, and calves. When I first heard that it was mind-blowing, but yet I also thought about it and I'm like, yeah, the backs of my legs tend to be really, really tight.

Your physical therapist is there to give you tailored advice and strategies. And the best part, they're often covered under insurance. So let's celebrate it when we can get it, right? If you don't have insurance, you can consider having just one or two appointments with them to get a proper evaluation and to see if they can create a home plan for you. Once you learn the stretches and exercises properly, you can do them at home. Another idea you could consider from a cost perspective is seeing if a local physical therapy practice holds any free public events. Some of them have speaking events that are free, and you can learn some good tips from them. It's not the personalized approach that an appointment offers, but really I'm just encouraging you to find creative ways to make this work for you.

There are always options. There are always possibilities. Seek the possibilities. Okay, now let's move on to one of my personal favorites, body work. Body work isn't just luxury, a frilly massage at a spa. Now I'm down for that too. But here I am talking about practitioners that can help to ease the physical stresses and strains that come with MS. Living with MS can sometimes feel like we are carrying a weight that others can't see. Body work, whether it's massage, acupuncture, or another form can help give us even a momentary

Over the years, I've done a lot of different ones. The one that I have done the most is acupuncture. I've been to several different acupuncturists and gone to them for several different reasons from managing migraines to emotions, to managing my cycle, healing from multiple knee injuries. I mean, there's so many reasons why I've gone there. But what I'm always surprised at is I may go for one thing, but there are so many other benefits that start falling into place. So for example, you may go for managing migraines,

down to the specific practitioner that you're seeing. Really getting a good recommendation here is key. But I will say sometimes you can find both chiropractic care and even sometimes acupuncture covered under your insurance plan. You know, they now have like these wellness aspects to insurance plans. So see if that's the case. So they can sometimes be covered under insurance. And that makes a big, big difference, even if it's just a few appointments.

I feel like I have my back against the wall trying to like describe this every single time because I still fall short on a really good explanation of it. But essentially you're laying down on, I guess it was like a massage table. And the practitioner is, it's a hands-on treatment, but it's not like massage in the sense that they're like working into the muscles. They're really, at least from my experience, she will have her hands either on my head, the cranial,

But I also can't explain how much better I feel afterwards. So that has been something that I have found to be really helpful. It is not covered under insurance. Actually, no, I shouldn't say that because I initially had appointments covered through that because I started seeing somebody through physical therapy. The first cranial sacral therapist that I found was at a local physical therapy place. So that was covered under insurance.

Really helpful for me. Again, I've leaned a lot on acupuncture, occasional chiropractic care, and then craniosacral therapy, but there are so many other ways in which you can explore body work. And here the budget or like the cost savings is really wide. You know, they're the best of the best and you can pay a really pretty penny for them. I've also over the years gone to people who are students, like at a local massage,

I will highlight to make sure that you have somebody on your MS wellness team that is supporting you from a nutrition perspective. The reality is we know that the food that we eat affects how we feel in our body. It can help to alleviate some of the symptoms that we experience of fatigue and brain fog and aches and pains. Is it a cure? No. But can it help us feel better in our bodies on a day-to-day basis? Yes. And personally, that's what I care about most. I want the best quality of life. I want the best level of energy, sustained energy throughout the day so that I can be the wife, the mom, the business owner, all of it, the person that I want to be. So that's where I lean on food a lot. It has served me tremendously.

The quote-unquote whole foods diet. I was trying to eliminate the processed foods, the obvious things that we know aren’t good for our bodies. And then other people are like, I’ve never like really delved into nutrition. I don’t even know where to start. Wherever it is, the first thing I want to share with you is that you don’t need to do a complete overhaul to get results. I know I’ve shared this message before, but I can’t say it enough. So many people don’t start with nutrition because they feel like they have to do this massive overhaul and they’re intimidated by it. They don’t feel like they have the energy, the budget, any of it. They just don't know where to start, so they don't start at all. That's the opposite of what you want to do.

Work for you and your lifestyle. Now, as I said, you guys know I'm a nutrition coach. So this is near and dear to my heart. I work with clients on a one-on-one basis and I help them really identify what are the foods that are best for your body. And more specifically, how can we make this work for your lifestyle? Because the other side to this is that I do have a lot of people that will reach out to me and they're like, 'Hey, I'm doing good. I feel like I have this down,

choices of these are the foods that are going to work best for your body.' And these are the foods that are best to avoid. But how do we make this realistic for your day-to-day life? So you guys know, I'm going to be sharing a lot of that information here on this podcast. I have a ton of resources over on my website at Alenebrennan. com. And if you're looking for that personalized approach, you can reach out for the coaching at Alenebrennan. com.

Heavy hitters for us to make sure that we have the core team established. So the final person here that I'm going to mention is a counselor or a therapist. Navigating life with MS is so much more than physical symptoms. It touches every part of our being, including our mental and emotional health. The weight of managing this unpredictable disease and often invisible disease

really helpful. Now I have to admit, I probably would not have initially sought out a counselor. When I was first diagnosed, I started seeing a counselor around that time because I had just lost my mom to a 10 year battle of cancer. So I was in the thick of grief from losing her. And then I got my MS diagnosis. And again, I went for the grief of my mom, but the value that I got as we worked through that, but also processing the diagnosis of MS. It felt like a weight was being lifted off my shoulders and off my heart. So I want to include this here because I want that same relief for you too. And here there are a lot of options to explore as well. You can explore somebody who is within your insurance plan, or you can, maybe there's somebody at your local church. You know, there's a lot of different ways in which you can find counseling and therapy. This is a great one to get some good recommendations for. And keep in mind, the good ones often have a decent wait. So don't wait until you feel like you are at your breaking point.

Okay, my friends, this, as I said, is the beginning of your wellness team, building your dream MS wellness team. That is a mouthful. But I hope that this resonated with you today. I hope it sparked some inspiration. What I want to leave you with right now is, I mentioned a lot of people, right? I've mentioned a lot of different practitioners. Which one stood out to you the most as your most immediate need right now? Start with that person. Don't feel like you have to get every single person figured out all at once. That creates overwhelm and that creates procrastination. Be willing to take imperfect, messy action. Whichever practitioner feels like they are of most value and of most need to you right now, that is who you start working on.

Then once you have them in place, then you start with the next person. You check them off one at a time. Here we are focusing on progress over perfection because at the end of the day, we're reclaiming our body, mind, and life. Well, my friend, we've reached the end of this episode. Pick one lesson from today's discussion and put it into action now. It's time to reclaim your body, mind, and life from multiple sclerosis. And for more resources, events, and programs, head over to AleneBrennan. com. See you on the next episode of my MS podcast.