The Gimp Chronicles: Shade-Stealing Crips: ZUMBA FOR MS!!!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

ZUMBA FOR MS!!!

My first attempt at MS fundraising!

So this week is MS Awareness Week, and a few weeks ago I decided I wanted to try and fundraise for MS-- I do Zumba, which has been really great for balance and exercise, so it seemed logical to have a Zumba Party to benefit MS. My Zumba instructor is absolutely awesome, and I managed to get the close middle school to donate the space.

These benefits do pretty well in this area, but I'm a novice at advertising this kind of party, and I'm hoping we are able to have a lot of fun but raise some money as well. Yes, it falls on March 17th, but we've got some high hopes that since it goes from 4-6, that people will want to work out before seriously partying :)

The above is the poster, and I love it... I love how they have the information there, and I love how dynamic it is. Regardless of how many people come, I am sure I'll raise more money than penny-drives! :)

1 comment:

Collette Sosnowy said...: Dear Crips,

I hope you don't mind my contacting you through the comments section. I didn't see a direct email address for you, but this message is intended for you, not as a comment.

My name is Collette Sosnowy and I am a Ph.D. student in environmental psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. I'm conducting a research project for my dissertation about blogs written by women with Multiple Sclerosis.

For my research, I have been reading your blog and am very interested in what you and others are writing about life with MS. I'd like to learn more about why you blog and how blogging fits into your life.

I’d like you to complete a brief online survey about these topics. The link to the survey is at the bottom of this email. The survey is anonymous, so your identity will be protected. The information you share will contribute to a greater understanding of the role of blogging in the lives of people with chronic illness.

The survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. I hope you will complete the whole survey, but you may choose to skip any questions that may make you uncomfortable and you can quit the survey at any time.

I really appreciate your participation! Please feel free to ask me any questions by e-mailing me at csosnowy@gc.cuny.edu.

You can also learn more about me and the project by visiting my website collettesosnowy.org

Thank you!

Here's the link:

http://edu.surveygizmo.com/s3/778690/0200f41af155; 2:36 PM

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Your humble gimptastic blogger:

Dx with RRMS on January 13, 2009-- interestingly, also one of my brothers' birthday. I'm in (*was in) a clinical trial for Ocrelizumab at present, and have had the first two infusions (August 2009). Before that, I spent 6 months poking myself with an Avonex needle and learning to cope with side effects the first two months. I probably have had MS for about four years, and was diagnosed at first with RA in 2007 , summer. Luckily, in Nov 2008 I hit Vertigo City after asking for a pain management referral, got a neurologist who dared to give me valium and meclizine for vertigo and got me a MRI. I so remember he called me soon after the MRIs were taken, asked me to come in, and explained that the radiologist reading the MRI had panicked and called him, saying 'You have to get her back in!'. He was pretty sanguine, but also told me, "If you were my daughter, I would tell you to take this [MRI] disk and go to the emergency room at Barrow or go to San Diego." I looked at him and basically asked, "Really?" His contention, and I believe him, was that my little podunkia county could not get the team he thought it would take together in less than several months' time, whereas Barrow had everything in one place. He let me know he didn't think it was cancer, that maybe it could be MS, but oh, "you also have a disk protruding right... there." Joy.

Long story short, I went the next day with bear and proceeded to have every bit as exciting and frustrating a diagnosis process as the TV show "House" presents. I believe I had seven doctors in several specialties trying to dx me-- a neuroimmunologist, a neuroncologist, an infectious disease guy, a neurosurgeon, a rheumatologist, and at least two other neuros. Two wanted to biopsy my brain (AHHHH!!), and luckily my hero-MS-doc held them off while I was tested for every conceivable disease. I swear. In the end, after eight days I had one diskectomy in my neck, had given lots of blood, but went home for Xmas. I had to see them four weeks later, and two things happened-- my neurosurgeon said the neck was looking good, and my hero-MS-doc gave me my official diagnosis. Sis, hubby, and myself were there. Thus began the real drama in life.

In regular life I profess English (figure it out), have a large family of four-legged ones, and fiddle on computers. Texas is my home, though I presently am in Arizona exile and really am not fond of the place*. I am grateful in the extreme for Barrow and the docs and staff there, and I don't even mind the 350 mile round trip drive up there. I will not reveal names, but lemme say that my MS doc and his trial coordinator rock the box!

And there you have me.
*Note: this loathing of Arizona is just getting worse (May 2012). **Better note-- I don't live in AZ anymore!