World MS Day Has Local Connection

For Michael Weiss, dealing with multiple sclerosis is all about maintaining a sense of control.

“For me, something I always tell patients when I speak to them is that I think it’s really important we realize we do have some control in our lives with MS,” said Weiss, 42, of Monroe. “It’s important that we all take ownership of our condition and try and be proactive and do something everyday for ourselves to put us in a position where we can be successful with our MS.”

Today, May 25, is the third annual World MS Day, which seeks to raise awareness about multiple sclerosis. In people with MS, the immune system attacks the myelin sheathing that surrounds nerves. The damage to the nerves affects each person differently, according National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

In Weiss’ case, it has led to tingling and feelings of numbness, as well as fatigue in memory issues. He said he experienced these symptoms for a while but didn’t know what they were.

“I had been going through a variety of really bizarre symptoms for quite a while, a number of years, from numbing and tingling to really bad cases of vertigo and some short-term memory problems,” he said. “Things would happen like I’d wake up and the entire left side of my body would be numb. It was scary, but I always sort of ignored it and kind of wrote it off as old sports injuries.”

But once his second child was born in 2004, Weiss said the stress triggered a feeling of numbness from the waist down—what he later realized was be a serious MS attack. “Once that episode occurred, my diagnosis didn’t really take that long,” he explained. “But going back and thinking about it when some of these symptoms started, it was probably about 10 to 12 years I was going through MS symptoms not knowing it.”

That diagnosis took a toll on him, and on his family.

“When I was diagnosed, I felt like it was a total loss of control,” he said, adding his family felt much the same way. But after learning more about his condition and how to manage it, he continued, “I realized I did actually have a lot of control things I can do to manage my MS.”

Now, he takes a daily injection to stave off the next attack in his form of the disease, Relapsing-Remitting MS, and he also does yoga at  in East Windsor. He still works full-time, running a division of a sales group for Cablevision. Since his diagnosis seven years ago, he hasn’t had another attack, and he acknowledges he’s “very fortunate.”   Weiss has also become a champion of MS, starting a popular Twitter feed and a Facebook group. He’s raised over $150,000 for the MS Society through the MS Walk that forms the basis for his popular website, and has twice served as MC of the MS Society’s National Conference. He’s appeared on the Today Show, and just recently he was elected to the Board of Trustees of the New Jersey Metro Chapter of the MS Society.  

“It’s about giving back for me, and I had such a great resource in the MS Society, I figured I’d pass that on a little bit,” Weiss said.

That push for awareness makes up the brunt of his work right now. “It’s important people realize being diagnosed with MS is not what it used to be,” he said. “We have options now, medications available to us, and there’s a lot research going on in the community.”

As Weiss has come to better understand his condition and find his place in the MS world, he said his family has also learned to cope with the disease.

“Over the course of time, and since I’ve become so active and involved and educated about the disease, it’s given my family a bit of relief as well,” he said. “Obviously changes take place, and we’ve all learned how to work with them and continue to stay positive and move forward. The most important thing I’ve gotten from them has been support.”

“Positive attitudes really help,” Weiss added. “They can take you a long way.”

To donate to MS research, visit Weiss’ website at www.mymsteam.com.