S2E12 Coffee Break with community member Natalie Cooper

Geoff Allix  00:02 

Welcome to Living Well with MS Coffee Break. I’m your host, Geoff Allix, we decided to do something a little different in expanding the range of content we produce here at Living Well with MS. Since our community forms the beating heart of Overcoming MS, we are commencing this special series called Coffee Break, which features short interviews with members of the OMS community, talking about their personal journeys, adopting and staying on the OMS seven step recovery program, the challenges they encountered, and how they overcame them, and their tips and tricks for sticking to the path that leads to better health. We hope you enjoy and learn from these brief chats between our regular episodes and as always, your comments and suggestions are welcome by emailing [email protected]. That’s [email protected]. And don’t forget, if you enjoy these and other Living Well with MS podcast episodes, please leave a review on Apple podcasts or your favorite podcast listening platform. Natalie, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your family, your life where you live and anything about yourself that you’d like to share with us. 

Natalie Cooper  01:11 

I’m currently in a little place called Los Gallardos, in Spain, and I’m here with my Dad, well it’s my parents’ place, I’m just telling my dad because my mom’s stuck in UK. And I ended up here, sort of a long story that going back a few years, I ended up sort of selling my house, relationship breakdown and so had to sell the house, it was a case of I had sort of a big chunk of money, but not really enough to do anything in the UK and I’d always wanted to travel and after chatting with a friend she sort of planted a seed because she just said off the cuff remark of “Oh, the world’s your oyster” and I kind of jokingly said to her “Oh, yeah, me and Milo we will get it we get a campervan and drive around the world till we run out of money and then we’re just do a Thelma and Louise” and sort of joking, obviously. And then I was kind of thinking about it, I thought, well, actually, why not? Sort of jumping forward a few years after going through all the, that was sort of before diagnosis, so after getting after diagnosis, everything kind of went a bit all our plans went a bit wrong. And I didn’t think I’d be able to go but then I’ve managed to get a six month career break from work, went halves with my parents on a motor home, and I had it for six months and drove around Spain, Portugal, and then back through France back to the UK for July last year. And after being at work, I basically decided that I think I’m gonna going to leave and get my own smaller campervan and just go. So that’s how I ended up here. Obviously, if there hadn’t been locked down I wouldn’t be staying at my parents place. I’d be travelling around and seeing places, I very nearly got a ferry over to Ibiza, but that didn’t happen, luckily, otherwise, I would have probably been stuck there because I’d have been there when it got locked down, so that wouldn’t have been much fun. And then sort of going back family wise, I just grew up in a small Berkshire village near Reading, just my mum and dad and sister. As far as far as I’m aware, I’m the only one, the first one in the family to have MS. I don’t really know much about sort of going back further in family so might not be but yeah, that’s how I sort of ended up here. 

Geoff Allix  01:46 

And when were you diagnosed with MS? And since then how long have you been following the OMS seven step recovery program? 

Natalie Cooper  03:58 

So I was officially diagnosed in August ’17, so it’s coming up three years now. I think I’ve got a second bout of optic neuritis in the June the first one was actually 10 years before, but where I’d had problems getting to actually see a specialist so I ended up going private through my work insurance and then after being officially diagnosed they had to refer me back to the NHS, so I didn’t actually see a proper MS neurologists till like the November so that would have been originally having the optic neuritis within about five months so that was very sort of stressful time. I think during that time as well, when I look back a lot of the sort of previously things that I now know would probably have been considered relapses were all around kind of stressful times and obviously going through all the stress, I think a lot of there were a lot of cock ups with appointments and things and I was messed about. So I think I had burning in my feet for ages then as well, but I’m lucky enough that my symptoms have mainly been sensories, I’ve never had any mobility issues, so that’s sort of a positive, but I think while I was waiting for that neurology appointment, a friend at work who actually had MS, she said about, oh, you can get a free book, “Overcoming MS” and, okay, so I got that, started reading it. January time, I decided, I sort of transitioned on to the diet, so kind of just sort of changed what I bought really, didn’t buy any more dairy or meat and, changed on to the diet. So that would have been the January ’18. Yeah, so sort of coming up two and a half years now. Because it just before, even when after I was diagnosed, but before I started OMS, I’d already started taking up sort of a yoga class. So that was a good introduction to the kind of meditation side of things and also as well, in the January time, I started going to my local MS Therapy center as well. So doing the oxygen therapy, reflexology, acupuncture, the various things they had an offer there. And also, I think I did, so I’ve had an appointment with the counselor they have there, but I only actually saw him once. Because by that time, I think taking on OMS and doing the other things, and I was just being a lot more positive. So I didn’t actually need that anymore. 

Geoff Allix  06:51 

What’s your favorite thing about the program? And what do you feel has made the biggest positive impact? 

Natalie Cooper  06:56 

I think for me, it’s just basically the taking control of it. Not having to rely on other people like the doctors, nurses, drugs. I was on Capaxone for six months, but then I choose to come off that. So it’s just gave me this sort of, it empowered me really to take control and help myself. And then it gave me a bit more freedom to be able to go on and do the travelling that I want to do. I literally have the one neurology appointment a year and I don’t have to, apart from that I just sort of manage it all myself, I don’t have to rely on anyone. You know, it’s just sort of like the vitamins and things and the food and the meditation, which I can just kind of do myself in my own time, I didn’t have to worry about appointments and blood tests and things like that. 

 
 Geoff Allix  07:54 

And what’s been the biggest challenge in adopting the OMS program? And how did you overcome that? 

Natalie Cooper  08:02 

I thought it would be the food, because I’ve always pretty much always sort of loved my food. But actually, I found that I adapted pretty quickly to that and it was surprisingly easy. I think because where I’d read the book and understood the reasoning behind it, I found that, you know, I was surprised how easily I’d got into that. Also, as I think I’ve always been a natural cook and quite sort of creative so that was quite easy. So the biggest challenge actually, probably the meditation. I did find when I was kind of travelling last year, you know, just kind of walking on a beach and stood there in the sea and looking out at the ocean and breathing, that would kind of be your meditation. When you sort of get back into normal life, it’s just sort of finding that sort of 15-20 minutes where you’re not going to be disturbed. For me it sort of tends to be the dog jumping on me or something. I can’t imagine if you had sort of children, it’d be a lot harder. But also, I think you can, you can have days when it’s quite hard, just so much sort of running through your head, and just trying to sort of shut that off and, and do that. So that’s probably the hardest thing really trying to get into good habit with that and then do it well. Which I think I’ve always found like guided meditation, I think trying to find, you know, a voice that you like that you can, that’s nice to listen to and so I’ve sort of found one now which I’ve got on my phone and so I can just lie in the sand and put that on and that sort of about 25 minutes I think, so when I get quiet I’ll go and lay down and do that, and that’s sort of my meditation but that was the hardest thing. 

Geoff Allix  09:50 

And so this is being recorded at pretty much the height of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and that’s really affecting almost everyone in the world’s lifestyle. So how have you had to adapt your daily habits to the restrictions with COVID-19? 

Natalie Cooper  10:16 

Well, actually here in Spain, I think they’re even stricter, than the have been in UK. So up until literally, Saturday, you couldn’t even go for a walk. But, I mean, luckily, I’ve got the dog, so I made sure I was going out for a walk with him. But again, I mean, officially, you are only meant to do 50 meters from your house, so I propably going a lot further. But I mean, Ideally I’d love to be able to sort of drive down the beach and take along the beach, but I can’t do that. I think as well mentally, sort of at the beginning, I wasn’t worried so much about the actual virus itself, I was more worried, because I’ve got friends out here that work in bars and restaurants and things, and they obviously couldn’t work. So I kind of worried about them and at the time, they didn’t know if they were gonna get paid and what would happen so and then you’ve got the news, you know, you got the radio on, TV on, and it’s all the news on there and it’s all very depressing, and can really kind of drag you down and you get quite overwhelming, I think I’ve had to kind of limit myself to that limit, limit the time that I sort of see any news, and then sometimes you sort of walk away or turn it off, because otherwise it just becomes too overwhelming and it’s, you know, can drag you down. Also, I think probably on the plus side, obviously, it gives you lots of time to experiment with sort of cooking or creating new things. So I’ve done quite a lot, quite a lot with that. I’ve made some nice new recipes, I’ve got a nice sort of vegan alioli that I’ve made, because I can’t go to the restaurants and have it, so it’s not been too bad. I’ve been doing an online course actually which is holistic nutrition and then plant-based nutrition. So I’ve had a chance to sort of do quite a bit of that and get that done. So I kind of think, there’s nothing you can do about it, you can’t change it, it is what it is so you just got to kind of get on and make the most of it really. So yeah, I think I got used to it now. It’d be strange when it opens up again and I can go out. 

Geoff Allix  12:36 

And do you have any other tips or tricks that you could share with the audience that might help them on their OMS journey? 

Natalie Cooper  12:41 

I suppose it anyone sort of new starting the program, I mean, it took me a couple of months to sort of get through the book. But there’s a great, or then after that, I found a great YouTube video, which is a beginner’s guide, about 45 minutes and that’s really good to sort of watch that as well. Also, I sent that to my parents, my sister, so they could, they could watch it, and then they could understand what I was doing. You know, they could understand why I wasn’t eating that and I wasn’t just been awkward, it wasn’t a fad diet, it was, you know, there were reasons behind it, then I found after I sent that to them, they kind of understood, they tend to be a bit more supportive. So if I was going out to dinner with my parents or something, then I’d sort of check the menu and be like there’s not really anything I can have, like can we go somewhere else and they’d be you know, they’d be fine with it or my mum would check with me; are you okay to go here and would be much more supportive saying and that’s always you know, that’s where sort of showing to people so they they understand and know why you doing it and things. Also, other things I found quite useful, there are some good sort of informative documentaries out there, like the Heal one, which is sort of power in the mind and positivity and Forks Over Knives and things like that. And also just like we can be our own harshest critics really, so, you know, if you’re having a bad day and you do something that you shouldn’t or, you know, just move on, go forward and don’t beat yourself up about it. Yeah, that would be it really. 

Geoff Allix  14:27 

Okay. Thank you very much for that and thank you for joining us for the OMS coffee break.