An Airdrie woman is hoping to bring awareness to a local support group for those living with Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
“We’d like to make sure other people in Airdrie who are going through the same thing know this group exists,” said Jodi Montgomery, a 36-year-old who was diagnosed with relapsing/remitting MS in April 2019.
The Airdrie MS Support Group meets the first and third Wednesday of each month except for July and August, Montgomery said. While the group used to meet at the Bethany Care Centre, she said the meetings have been taking place online via Zoom since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Montgomery, who has been a member of the group for about a year, said it has been an important support system since her diagnosis.
“I’ve made friends that understand what I’m going through,” she said. “If I’m having a bad day, even if the meeting isn’t that week, I know I can reach out to [the group leader] or any of the other friends I’ve made. I can text or call them and I feel like I’m not so alone in it.”
According to mssociety.ca, MS is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system – the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. The disease causes inflammation and damage to the myelin, which is the nervous system’s protective covering. Myelin is needed for the transmission of nerve impulses through nerve fibres. Despite decades of research, the root of what causes MS is still a mystery and everyone who has the disease experiences symptoms differently.
“There’s speech issues, temporary vision loss, severe nerve pain – everyone has a different experience and different treatment,” Montgomery said.
While the disease is more common among women, it is typically diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 39.
Montgomery, a mother of three children who has called Airdrie home for 33 years, said she still remembers waking up one Sunday morning in April 2019 unable to feel her feet.
“From my ankles down, it felt like when you sit on it until it falls asleep,” she said. “I didn’t understand why. By the time I woke up the next morning, it was that feeling, but from my waist down.”
After a visit to her family doctor did not provide any answers, Montgomery said her boyfriend – suspecting she had a pinched nerve – recommended she see a chiropractor. Montgomery said the chiropractor conducted a few neurological tests and immediately told her she needed to go to the emergency room.
“I kind of laughed at first – I’m not a chiropractor,” she said. “But he said no, he really needed me to leave, find someone to watch my kids and then go to the hospital.”
Montgomery said she immediately went to the Peter Lougheed Centre in Calgary, where she was raced into the ER for some neurological tests. Upon failing the tests, she said she was rushed in for an MRI scan and was scheduled to see a neurologist at the Foothills Medical Centre.
After two MRI scans, Montgomery said the tests revealed she had two lesions on her spine and multiple lesions on her brain. The lesions on her spine were what caused the lack of feeling in her legs, she said, adding her symptoms fluctuate.
“They don’t know why it happens and can’t tell me why it happened to me,” she said. “They do think stress triggers episodes, and at the time, I was under a lot of stress. They get you on treatment and tell you to completely de-stress your life as much as possible. They put me on a bunch of extra vitamins and I’ve started my infusion therapy as well, so I’ve been doing that for about a year.”
Montgomery's experience is not uncommon, as Canada has one of the highest rates of MS in the world. According to the MS Society of Canada, an estimated 77,000 Canadians live with the disease.
“MS seems to be one of those things that…people tend to hide the fact they have it,” Montgomery said. “You probably know a lot of people who have MS and you just never realize they do.”
Considering many people live silently with the disease, Montgomery wants to promote the Airdrie MS Support Group, which currently has roughly a dozen members. She said she was initially hesitant about attending a support group meeting, but was talked into it by her family – something she added she's glad happened.
“Going to that group that first night really made me realize this maybe wasn’t as scary as I thought it was,” she said. “If some of these people can live with it for 20 years and are still here, I’m going to be OK.”
Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19
