My Scars Are Beautiful
Our life experiences shape and define who we are. While some wash over us and dissipate, others leave indelible impressions. Both emotional and physical, our scars hold our past and influence our future. We…
Silver Linings — Jennifer Powell
Jennifer is the Brand and Marketing Manager for Bionews (Multiple Sclerosis News Today is a subsidiary of Bionews). Jenn is also the host of the Multiple Sclerosis podcast, as well as a featured columnist. An active advocate in the MS community, Jenn imparts her hopeful optimism into real-life challenges facing the MS community. Now with secondary-progressive MS, Jenn continues to elevate the patient voice to better the lives of those living with MS. When not writing, Jenn enjoys volunteering with her local golden retriever rescue, traveling, and spending time with family and friends. Jenn resides in Orange County, California, with her husband and golden retriever.
Featured Post
I’m Giving Myself the Gift of Grace This Christmas
The ballerina twirls in the late afternoon light. As if on cue, Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” suite begins to play. I’m lost in the dimly lit ornaments as my mind wanders. I fall into a deep nostalgia.
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Let Go and Live
Six weeks ago, Abby, my golden retriever, had a seizure. I was sitting behind her when she began to rock; I have never moved so fast. I could only see the bloodshot whites…
Pain Meds Help Me Live
There is no guidebook to living with a chronic, progressive, and incurable disease. Even if such a book existed, it would only be somewhat applicable, as things change on a daily basis. We…
Living in the Solution: My Life with Progressive MS
Today is Walk MS, and for the first time since my diagnosis, I am not there. While I am not one to feel sorry for myself, this stings. I miss being among the…
Shining Through Boundaries
I spent the majority of my life as a people pleaser. From the time I was young, I equivocated “yes” with likability; please and be pleased. As the years…
Navigating Ups and Downs with MS
Today, I ate a dog treat. I was eating cookies from a nearby bowl when I broke a dog treat in half for Abby. Instead of putting the other half in my pocket,…
Adapting to MS: Modifying and Thriving
I was throwing the ball for my golden retriever when it bounced onto an unreachable ledge. I watched her become antsy for a ball she could see but not reach and wondered what…
Emotions Run High
I am a sensitive individual by nature. Good, bad, or insignificant, that is part of my genetic makeup. I cry when the dog gets hurt in the movie, at every episode of “This Is…
Reflective Calm: Finding Peace Amid Progression
I have been contemplative these last few days, lost in thought regarding the state of the MS. I am not sad or upset, simply in observation mode. Reaching for what may have precipitated this…
MS and Friends: Not All Are Created Equal
I write in an effort to offer enlightenment. Yet, so often I find I am the one to receive an education. Such was the case with my column on…
Mercury Rising: Heat and MS
My favorite season is fall, which is almost tied with winter, then spring, and finally, summer. I love fall for being the beginning of the holiday…
Navigating Relationships with MS
Relationships are work. When you add in a chronic, progressive disease, the work becomes exponential. This is not to say work is a bad…
Coming out of the Cog Fog
I am watching the computer curser taunt my inability to collect my thoughts. Three days out of chemotherapy, my brain is more fried than usual, the fog…
Moving into the New Year with MS: Resolute to Live Each Day
I have always loved the start of New Year’s; tabula rasa, clean slate. Much like a snake shedding its skin, we leave behind the old and embrace the new, or at least accept…
A Year in Review with Progressive MS
They say a near-death experience will invoke a montage of your life in a matter of seconds. Gratefully, I have not had the experience to find out if this is indeed a truism,…
Energy Efficiency and MS
I am tired, like beyond tired. I make tired look scintillating, and as funny as that sounds, it is anything but when trying to live your life. My spoons are numbered, and by…
Finding Peace During the Holidays
The Christmas season is upon us — decorations, shopping, and get-togethers dominate the month of December. If you tune into the Hallmark channel you will see this season as synonymous with love, laughter,…
Gratitude Is Calling. Don’t Let MS Stop You from Answering
I find it incredibly ironic that the day after we pause to give thanks for whom and for what we have, we are breaking down doors and fighting one another in the…
An Anniversary of Sorts: 7 Years Since My Diagnosis
Anniversaries often invoke reflection about the beginning, the journey, and where we now find ourselves. With luck, lessons will have been learned from the invariably good and bad experiences that couple any…
A Beacon of Hope Amid MS-Related Pain
Do you have pain? Although prone to subjectivity, I am certain the majority of you silently said yes. I did. I hesitated to write this, as pain, from the definition of it to…
