May 10, 2018 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 are the totality of these…
May 3, 2018 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 of her eyes as she…
April 19, 2018 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 are all as unique as…
April 12, 2018 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 sea of impassioned orange…
March 29, 2018 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 passed, compromising my own needs…
March 22, 2018 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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, I put it in my…
March 15, 2018 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 she would do. Her frustration…
March 8, 2018 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 Us,” and every time I…
March 1, 2018 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 gentle melancholy, I realize I…
February 15, 2018 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 relationships and MS — or…
February 8, 2018 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 season as well as for…
February 1, 2018 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 thing, as we reap immense…
January 25, 2018 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 thick and dense. For those…
January 11, 2018 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 such. While Dec. 31 is…
December 21, 2017 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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, but I recently experienced a…
December 14, 2017 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 midday, I am usually through…
December 7, 2017 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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, and an abundance of cheer.
November 30, 2017 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 name of Black Friday. While…
November 16, 2017 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 passage of time. In November…
November 9, 2017 Columns by Jennifer (Jenn) Powell 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 the management of it, is…
November 30, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister Is multiple sclerosis everywhere, or am I just more aware of it now?