S2E13 Building community through Overcoming MS Circles with Vickie Hadge

Geoff Allix  00:00 

Hi everyone, Geoff Allix here, your host of the Living Well with MS podcast. To all our listeners, I hope you and your families are staying safe and healthy during this COVID 19 crisis. Whilst social distancing and other restrictions may seem like a drag, in the long run, it will prove critical to stemming the tide of this epidemic and returning to a sense of normality. I have faith we will come out of this stronger, smarter and a bit more enlightened as a result. In the meantime, we at Overcoming MS and the whole team behind this podcast are here for you, to keep you informed and help you keep on track with your personal journey to a healthier you, now on with the show. Today’s episode is Building Community through OMS Circles. For this episode, I’d like to welcome Vicki Hadge an OMS ambassador from Connecticut in the US. Vicki was diagnosed with MS in 2017 had her first symptoms in 2011, although not diagnosed at the time. She lives with her MS by following the OMS program and encourages others to do the same through her OMS Circle. Vicki has been running her own virtual assistant company since 2003 and enjoys working with her global clients. She’s active in her community on the Board of Education Foundation, Volunteers with her church on several committees and enjoys cooking for and hosting her family and friends. She enjoys helping others, her family, community, clients and her OMS Circle members. So Vicki, welcome to the OMS podcast and please tell our audience a bit about yourself and your MS journey. 

 

Vickie Hadge  01:36 

Oh, thank you for having me. I am coming up on my third anniversary, my third diagnosisversary at the end of May, I was diagnosed in 2017, but my first discernible symptoms happened 11 years prior to that. I had an instance where I had some problems with my foot and back then I didn’t know what it was, but it was foot drop and I went into the hospital for a weekend and they treated me with steroids. They weren’t positive that it was MS, so I spent a couple of years getting MRI’s every six months and checking in with my neurologist and nothing new happened over those two years and the steroids cleared up that foot drop, so they sent me on my way and said, come back if you have any symptoms. It was a little scary at the time, so I made some life changes. I started eating a more vegetarian diet and doing yoga and meditation, my balance was off a little bit, so I thought the yoga would help. And 11 years later is when I had my second relapse, and I started to get some numbness and tingling and some spasms on my left side. So I went back to the doctor and had more nerve conduction studies and MRI’s done and it took about a year from that point to finally get my MS diagnosis. So that’s my MS story. 

 
 Geoff Allix  03:05 

Okay. And when did you discover Overcoming MS. 

  

Vickie Hadge  03:10 

I discovered Overcoming MS before my diagnosis, in that year interim, of course, I was curious about what was going on with me, so I was doing a lot of research and I came across OMS through a Google search and I started implementing some of the OMS changes before my diagnosis because I feared that’s what I did have. So it was really helpful for me to have that degree of control of what was happening with my health. 

  

Geoff Allix  03:40 

Did you come across a lot of different approaches to dealing with MS, what attracted you to OMS, specifically? 

  

Vickie Hadge  03:42 

Excellent question. So as I was doing my research, I came across a lot of different programs and diets and different people claiming they could help with MS. I really was drawn to Overcoming MS because it is evidence based and it also dovetails nicely with what I was doing already. I do tend to lean towards the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle and the whole food/plant based diet really fit well with that and I was very impressed with the amount of research that went on in the OMS program and also that it was based on Dr. Swank’s research. 

 
 

Geoff Allix  04:29 

So did you find it relatively straightforward to follow the program to start with? 

 
 

Vickie Hadge  04:34 

I did find it pretty straightforward. You know, it wasn’t easy at first for me, because like anything, it was a big change. I was addicted to dairy, before the OMS program. I was vegetarian, but I still had cream in my coffee and I loved cheese. I could not imagine life without cheese. But after reading the research, and seeing how saturated fat could really affect my central nervous system and my relapse rates I was able to give it up. 

 
 

Geoff Allix  05:05 

I think yeah, I would say for me, cheese was probably the hardest thing I think. We’ve just been going through planning our meals to next week and the fact that you can add in, we can have a barbecue because we can have fish, and I love fish and so there’s nothing really lacking, I don’t feel I’m missing anything by not having meat but dairy is the hardest one I think, specifically cheese, because there’s some great non dairy milks now, but yeah, cheese and the obsession with having cheese on pizzas as well, I don’t want to call out America specifically.  I go to America quite a lot and they do seem obsessed with saying, Oh, we have vegan cheese and like no, actually, I just want pizza without, I love pizza without cheese. 

 
 

Vickie Hadge  05:56 

Oh, I do too. We love pizza without cheese and, it’s funny people ask, What do you eat? And I tell them there’s over 20,000 kinds of edible plants out there. I have a wide variety of foods that I can eat and yeah, I mean, I eat a more diverse diet now than I did before. 

 
 

Geoff Allix  05:59 

Yeah, absolutely and yeah, I don’t feel certainly that I’m missing anything now once you get used to the diet. So we’re talking about OMS circles and so how important a role did your local community play; your friends, your family in adopting OMS recovery program? And your MS journey in general? 

 
 

Vickie Hadge  06:51 

Oh, that’s a good question. My family, of course, was very concerned about my health. I’m the first one in my direct family that was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, and specifically MS. So there wasn’t a lot of understanding of what was happening with me and when I shared with them that I was doing the Overcoming MS program and part of that was a diet change most were really supportive, some didn’t quite understand it, and they think it’s a bit restrictive, so there was a bit of educating that I had to do with that. But having the support of my immediate family was really tremendously helpful for me. 

 
 

Geoff Allix  07:35 

And have you found it quite straightforward, things like family meals, meals with friends? 

 
 

Vickie Hadge  07:43 

Not at first, I’m very lucky that my husband has adopted this lifestyle with me, so that has been very helpful. It took me a while to figure out how I could eat with my family that was not OMS diet related, and those who weren’t. And it took me a little bit of time to figure out how to go out to eat. I’m really well versed at it now I tell my friends that we can go to any restaurant they want to go to and it’s very easy for me to look at a menu and I generally go to the entree section and I look at all the side dishes that are served with their entrees and then I asked the waitstaff if they can ask the chef if it can be prepared in an OMS compliant either baked or roasted or steamed without oil. And usually they come up with a fantasticc dish and the people I’m dining with are very impressed with the food that i’m eating. 

 
 

Geoff Allix  08:40 

I think sometimes chefs like the challenge actually, a good chef anyway, actually quite likes to do something that’s not the same thing as they make every single night. So could you explain a bit about OMS Circles, what OMS Circles are? 

 
 

Vickie Hadge  08:55 

Sure, OMS Circles are communities or support groups for people who are following the OMS program or interested in the OMS program. It is like minded people, we get together and we share experiences and we support one another. When I first was looking for an OMS community there wasn’t one locally to me, there was one in a neighbouring state that I was able to attend, but it was quite a bit of a drive. And so after about a year I asked to become an ambassador so I could start one in my own state. 

 
 

Geoff Allix  09:30 

And so what’s an ambassador in that role? 

 
 

Vickie Hadge  09:33 

An ambassador is the leader of the circle and it doesn’t mean that we are the end all, know all, it just means that we organise our get togethers, and we all kind of lead together, we support each other. I am not the sage on the stage. I come to the group and I help share knowledge and I get just as much knowledge from my peers in the group. At our last meeting this past week, I asked them what it meant to be part of a community and some of the things that they shared with me is that the shared experience, you know, no one around us knows what MS is, you know, if they don’t have MS. So coming together with that shared experience, and learning from one another, like I said, I’m only coming up on my third anniversary of my diagnosis, and some of the people in my group have been diagnosed for 20 plus years. So learning from their wisdom, the been there, done that club, as we call it, has been invaluable to me. 

 
 

Geoff Allix  10:40 

And can you tell us a bit about your OMS Circle specifically? 

 
 

Vickie Hadge  10:43 

Sure. My OMS circle is based in Connecticut, we’re in Central Connecticut, we meet about once a month before we had the virus lock down and now we’re meeting about once a week, we were meeting face to face about once a month, a gathering, usually 7 to 10 of us. And now we are meeting on Zoom and it’s really great to get together and support one another. We love to do theme nights, you know, we’ll talk about Thanksgiving cooking or we’ll talk about yoga. We’ve had some guest speakers come in and talk about yoga, or exercise or we will watch a YouTube video and we’ll discuss that or we’ll watch a movie and we’ll discuss that is related to the OMS diet or lifestyle. 

 
 

Geoff Allix  11:34 

How have you found it adapting to the Coronavirus lockdown measures? And have you found people that you know, have people been worried, has that helped people having the Circle there? 

 
 

Vickie Hadge  11:46 

It has helped a lot. The Zoom lifestyle for our OMS Circle has been really good, we have actually gained a few members, we have some members that are farther away who could not attend our face to face live meetings. So some of our extended circle of friends that are farther away have been able to attend. And we’ve actually worked with another local MS support group and some of their members are coming to us and some of our members are going to them. So we’ve grown our friendships and our support. Some of our members have been feeling very isolated, you know, having MS can make you feel isolated and having MS during Coronavirus can make you feel really isolated. So getting together, one of our members said she was so grateful to get together because she just got inspired to pull out her yoga mat after one of our meetings because we were talking about what we’re doing while we’re in isolation, and how much it’s helped her to get back on the yoga mat. 

 
 

Geoff Allix  12:51 

Okay, and could you just say a little bit about how the role of an OMS Circle helps people who are new to OMS adapt to the changes that they need to make in their lifestyle? 

 
 

Vickie Hadge  13:08 

Sure. So when we first get diagnosed, and we decide, okay, I’m going to try this OMS diet lifestyle thing, and we order the book, or we download the book, it can be a little bit overwhelming. It’s a pretty big book and there’s lots of questions, you know, can I can I eat this? Can I eat that? Can I do this with my lifestyle anymore? How do I meditate, can someone helped me meditate? So I think when the new people come in, they do have a lot of questions. And having that support community of people who’ve been through the changes, encouraging them along the way is really helpful to the new people. I think a lot of times the new people come in, and they may not know what they can do to help themselves live well with the MS. What they know is what they’ve heard, either online or through their doctor’s office, you have a progressive degenerative incurable disease, here’s some drugs, good luck. And they come to the circle, looking for hope and looking for empowerment. 

 
 

Geoff Allix  14:16 

And I find sometimes television shows don’t necessarily portray, they want a story, so they’re portraying people, maybe in wheelchairs, and that seems to be the only way you could go and maybe that’s the impression. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I often get the comment; Oh, but you look really well. People just assume oh, you’ve got MS, therefore you will be in you know, maybe even bed bound or, and that’s not to say some people aren’t, some people are but that’s not the absolute, you know, that’s not our definite path. So I think there is that element that some people I’ve met, certainly they were worried. 

 
 

Vickie Hadge  15:05 

I get that comment a lot too. Oh, you look so good, and I’m like, well, MS doesn’t make me ugly. But it’s true, you know, I think that even when I was first diagnosed, you know, the first thing I thought of was an actress that I knew growing up who was in terrible shape at the end of her life from her MS and that was my only guide point. That’s the only thing I knew about it. So, you know, finding others who have been living well with the disease for years and years and years and living active, happy, fulfilling lives. I mean, whether they’re in a wheelchair or not, they’re still living well, you know, having a mobility aid is not being confined to a wheelchair, it’s been liberated by it and, you know, despite what our physical limitations are, we can still live really well and really healthy and feel well, with our disease. 

 
 

Geoff Allix  16:03 

Yeah, absolutely, I think there’s definitely a mental aspect there, isn’t there? If you’re positive, you can live well, I know people well, some of whom are in wheelchairs, but they’re so positive, and they’re like, Okay, well, you know, I’m gonna make the best of this, and also, I’m still gonna try really hard. I’m not gonna say, well, because I’m in a wheelchair, I’m giving up. They’re saying, well, actually, I’m in a wheelchair, my target is not being a wheelchair, but even so I’d certainly don’t want to get any worse, so I’m going to do absolutely everything for my health. I think some people have the attitude of, oh, okay, I’m not the marathon runner I used to be therefore give up and I’m certainly not. I mean, I have run marathons in the past, and I’ve had a marathon runner on the podcast, who runs marathons with MS and I don’t think that’s going to be me, I don’t think I’d run a marathon if I didn’t have MS. But yeah, so I have done in the past, but that’s not to say that where I am now, I’m still feeling pretty positive and think, Okay, this is everything’s been studied down by OMS, as much as they think and that’s not a bad place to be. And, and yeah, people do say, you look really good all the time and my wife’s convinced that is OMS that causes that, because eating a really healthy diet, and exercising, and lowering stress levels, kind of makes you look quite youthful. So that’s not a bad thing in anyone’s books. So we’re talking about people who are new to it. What about someone who has had MS for quite a long time? So if you’ve got a lot of experience with having MS and possibly with OMS, as well. Is that community involvement still useful for those sort of people? 

 
 

Vickie Hadge  18:03 

Absolutely. We have members of our group who have not heard of MS before, they heard about our group who’ve had MS for a number of years and they’re seeing improvements as they change their diet and their lifestyle. They’re like, wow, I’m starting to feel better, or I didn’t know I could improve my balance, I could improve my gait, I could improve my cog fog, just by making these additional changes to my diet and my lifestyle. So you know, we have one member, who has had MS for over 20 years, and she’s saying the simple changes she’s made in her diet have really started to make a difference for her. 

 
 

Geoff Allix  18:47 

That’s brilliant. So are there any anecdotes that you can relay that convey the impact that you feel you’re making in your corner of the OMS community? 

 
 

Vickie Hadge  18:55 

Sure, I have some members of my group who have come to me privately, and have shared stories of how big a difference it is, to be a part of a supportive community and to be part of something that deals with wellness instead of illness. One girl in particular, she came to me and she said I’ve never been to a group where we focus on wellness instead of illness. She had been to other groups where they focused on pharmaceuticals and medicating symptoms instead of trying to improve symptoms and it made a big difference in her mindset towards living with her disease. I had another member who came to me who was really struggling with you know, her legs and moving and after being with our group for several months and making changes in her diet and her lifestyle, she was starting to feel better and she thought she would never feel better, she thought she would always just progress. 

 
 

Geoff Allix  20:04 

Well, that’s fantastic. And so just one final thing because we are in the middle of a worldwide Coronavirus COVID 19 pandemic. Is there any tips or tricks that you would give to people dealing with their diet, their exercise, mindfulness, following the OMS program in this unusual situation that everyone in the world finds themselves in? 

 
 

Vickie Hadge  20:32 

Sure, I think the thing that is most helpful for me in staying home with this virus is getting my Vitamin D, getting out in the sunshine. I think getting that Vitamin D and getting outside is really helpful for physical and emotional health. I try to walk outside every day, you know, of course, socially distance, walking outside in nature every day, and that Vitamin D really makes a difference for all of us. When we’re meeting with our OMS Circle we talk about; so what did you do this week? And it’s really easy to say, yeah, I did nothing this week, or I watched a lot of Netflix this week. But when we do get outside, and we do exercise, and we get our Vitamin D, we feel so much better. And watching our diet, of course, it’s really easy to want to eat the comfort foods, maybe the processed foods that aren’t so healthy and focusing on the good nutrition that’s going to make our bodies feel the best is really important when we’re under stress like this. Also, the meditation is very important, centering and living in the moment is really important. I think a lot of us are focused on the future, you know, that date where we can go out again, that date when it’s going to be over, instead of living in today. So my meditation really helps me be focused on being present today in this moment and living this life. 

 
 

Geoff Allix  22:04 

Thank you and Vicki can i just thank you very much for joining us to be a guest on the Living Well with MS podcast. 

 
 

Vickie Hadge  22:11 

My pleasure. 

 
 

Geoff Allix  22:15 

With that, I would like to thank you all for listening to this episode of Living Well with MS. Remember that there is a wealth of information at overcomingms.org including show notes and an archive of all Living Well with MS episodes. Once again, that’s overcomingms.org. There you could also find OMS friendly recipes and exercise tips, connect with other OMSers in your local area through our OMS Circles program, and learn about the latest research going on in the MS world generally and related to OMS specifically. I encourage you to register on the site, and stay informed about the latest news and updates. I also encourage you to subscribe to this podcast, so you never miss an episode and please feel free to share it with others who might find it of value. Let us know what you think about the podcast by leaving a review and if you have ideas for future episodes, we’d love to hear from you. So please contact us via our website overcomingms.org. Thanks again for listening, and for joining me on this journey to Overcoming MS and Living Well with Multiple Sclerosis. I’m Geoff Allix and I’ll see you next time.