Transcript
A (0:00)
The biggest motivation was the fact that I now had a flare up. So my partner said, I think something needs to change. Just eating organic isn't enough. I mean, of course it was also to stress, but we felt like, okay, there needs to be more happening. I still don't understand why it took so long for me to find Overcoming Ms. I wished that my neurologist would have told me, like, hey, there's a program. Actually, I did call with my neurologist. I told him, like, there's this program I'm going to follow. And he was like, oh, okay, Interesting. Can you send me a link? Welcome.
B (0:31)
Welcome to Living well with Ms. This show comes to you from Overcoming ms, the world's leading multiple sclerosis healthy lifestyle charity which helps people live a full and healthy life. Through the Overcoming Ms. Program, we interview a range of experts and people with multiple sclerosis. Please remember, all opinions expressed are their own. Receive monthly tips and ideas about Living well with Ms. By signing up for our newsletter@overcomingms.org newsletter and now let's meet our guest.
C (1:09)
Welcome to the latest edition of the Living well with Ms. Podcast. Joining me on this edition is Juliet Delatra from the Netherlands. Juliette was diagnosed with Ms. In 2019, which came as a big shock as she didn't have any noticeable flare ups and she doesn't have any family members with Ms. From that moment, she decided to focus on changing her lifestyle. She finished her bachelor's degree and has since started to work online as a language teacher. Future. So welcome, Juliet.
A (1:32)
Thank you.
C (1:33)
So to start off with, we'll start with this. Could you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your diagnosis?
A (1:38)
Yeah, well, I'm Juliet and you introduced me a little bit already. I'm working online. I am right now living in Italy, but originally I'm from the Netherlands and I live there from time to time as well. Then about my diagnosis, that's now almost six years ago. That came as quite a big shock because I, I was at that time doing my bachelor's and I just had a little bit of a numb feeling on my left side of my face and a bit of a numb feeling in my leg, but not really significant. I had no idea what it was. I was a bit confused. Then a friend told me, yeah, just let it be checked because maybe if it's the same side, maybe it has to do something with your brain. And I thought, well, let me check it. And then I went to my GP and my GP was quite hesitant as well. And I'm not so sure Why? I was pushing it a bit, but I thought, like, just to be sure, why not? So I convinced them a bit. And then I went to the neurologist for an mri and I thought I actually had a tooth nerve thing, that maybe a nerve was bugged in my tooth. And well, then eventually I went there to sit and I just saw his face. It was really sad. I'm really concerned. And that was the moment I was really confused because I did not expect him to be so concerned. And then he said, yeah, I have really bad news for you. And I just started crying at that point without even knowing what it was, just because he looked at me like there was the worst thing ever in his eyes. So I was just shocked and I started crying and I heard something about ms, but at that point I had no idea what Ms. Was. So. So because I don't have any family members who have ms, I probably heard about it once, but it never clocked with me because I don't have any friends who have Ms. I didn't really know much about it at that point. He just started to say, like, oh, yeah, it's difficult, it's not curable, and you can have this and this and this and this and this can happen to you. So it just felt like a sort of a big load on me, sort of changing my life in that moment just to sort of. Yeah, everything turned around and that was really weird from not expecting it at all. Yeah, there was a big shock to say. Yeah, the months after it was really confusing because I went on the Internet searching what. What is a mess? And then you get, it's just always a bad idea. But I didn't know.
