Living with multiple sclerosis often means managing the many emotions that come not only from the disease itself, but how others engage with us as a result of the effects of MS.
While we do our best to meet each experience with grace, sometimes we just have to VENT...which is exactly what our panelists will be doing on the next MS Confidential. We hope you will join us to let off some steam. It’s healthy to do so!
con·fide /kənˈfīd/
verb
1. to tell something secret or personal to someone
2. entrust something to (someone) for safekeeping
3. to disclose private matters in confidence
MS Confidential is a webcast series of candid conversations on navigating the chaos of MS.
Life with multiple sclerosis is complicated—not just in the ways one typically thinks of—unsteadiness, difficulty walking, the countless doctor’s appointments and MRI’s. Many of these symptoms are visibly apparent and often only discussed by “experts.” But there are other far less visible effects that MS can hijack. The way we relate to not only our caregivers, family, and friends can be complicated when we don’t know what the future holds for our brains and bodies. It can be terrifying, burdensome, and can be humiliating in the way we are treated by society and even by people close to us. If we are lucky, we can find humorous moments as we try to adjust to the multiple changes MS brings, and perhaps discover experiences of joy and happiness on our individual journeys.
MS Confidential is a webcast that provides a safe space for personal and informal discussions for people living with multiple sclerosis. Three panelists living with various stages of MS —Elizabeth Jameson, Annie Brewster, and Kyle Kranich, are joined by a dynamic guest each month, disclosing some of their innermost frustrations and challenges, engage in open conversations with one another, and provide opportunities for viewers to participate as well.
trailer
episodes
Episode 21: Ask Me Anything
Episode 20: Power, Interrupted
Episode 19: This is Your Brain on MS
Episode 18: A Funny Thing Happened on the way to… Everywhere
Episode 17: How We Heal
Episode 16: It Takes a Team
Episode 15: Picking Our Battles
Episode 14: It’s Not Your Fault
Episode 13: In our Skin w/ guest Mayia Warren
Episode 12: Life Hacks w/ guest Heather Kennedy
Episode 11: Work Life, Chronic Life w/ guest Lydia Emily
Episode 10 - The Levity in the Heavy
Episode 9 - How We Hope
Episode 8 - MS in the Time of Covid
Episode 6 - Hey Doc w/ guest Dr. Moyez Jiwa
Episode 5 - TOXIC POSITIVITY w/ guest Jenn Powell from MS NEWS TODAY
Episode 4: ENVY & JEALOUSY
Episode 3 - THE EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER
Episode 2 - RELATIONSHIPS
Episode 1 - VANITY
the panelists
Elizabeth Jameson
Elizabeth Jameson is an artist and writer who explores what it means to live in an imperfect body as part of the universal human experience. Before her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, she served as a public interest lawyer representing incarcerated children; she later represented children living with chronic illnesses and disabilities in their attempts to receive medically necessary care.
As her disease progressed, she began using her MRI’s to create art as a way of reclaiming agency of her own medical data. She transformed the unsettling, clinical images into work that invites people to open up conversations about what it means to have an illness or disability. Her work is part of permanent collections both nationally and internationally, including the National Institutes of Health, major universities, and medical schools. She now writes personal essays and speaks across the country sharing her experiences living with illness and disability. Her essay, “Losing Touch, Finding Intimacy,” was included in the New York Times book, About Us, released in September 2019 by Norton Publishing.
Many of her lectures at medical schools and symposiums have been recorded and shared, including her TedX talk, “Learning to Celebrate and Embrace Our Imperfect Bodies.”
Kyle Kranich
Kyle Kranich, 31 years young, lives in Asheville, NC and has been battling aggressive Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis since age 20. Up until that point, he was a very active guy that played basketball, surfed, and ran half marathons. Now because of the progressive nature of this condition, he relies on mobility aids like walkers/rollators or wheelchairs. He is currently a full-time student at Colorado State University Global and is a content creator sharing his journey with MS in hopes of reaching others navigating similar circumstances. His IG page is amassing an enthusiastic and appreciative following through his candor, humor and willingness to “tell it like it is.”
Dr. Annie Brewster
Dr. Annie Brewster is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and a practicing Internist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. She is also a patient, diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2001. In 2010, motivated by her belief in the power of stories to improve health, Annie started recording patient narratives. Over the years, her finished audio stories have been featured on Boston’s local NPR station, WBUR. In doing this work, Annie has seen first-hand how the process of storytelling is itself therapeutic, both for the storytellers and the listeners. Research supports this claim. Health Story Collaborative, the 501 (c)(3) organization she founded in 2013, grew out of this work. She is committed to keeping the patient voice alive and to reclaiming the power of stories in healthcare.
Her work has been published on NPR.ORG, the New York Times Well Blog, and in the Boston Globe and MS Focus magazine. She has been featured in Harvard Medicine magazine, and on the cable television program “About Health with Jeanne Blake”. She also presented at TEDx Fenway in 2014 on harnessing the healing power of stories.
Director - Elizabeth Jameson
Producers - Lisa Foote and Kimberly Warner