https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/4s9wfk/PodcastAudio_Episode169.mp3



“You have something like a major surgery, whether you have MS specifically or whether you have any other type of autoimmune disease or anything like that, but those don’t have to be death sentences. Even though that’s what they feel like when you first get diagnosed, and if the relapses are hitting harder and harder, or if the symptoms are getting worse. It’s easy to think it’s just going downhill. The biggest thing that CrossFit has done for me is to remind me or show me that I can take control of my health. I can take control of what my body does, I can take control of what I put into my body, and all of those things are going to benefit me.”
- Jasmine Joy
 
To look at Jasmine Joy, you would never know there are lesions on her brain and spinal cord, or guess that rods and screws are holding her spine in place.  To the casual observer, 26-year old Jasmine is healthy, happy, and moving freely with full intensity in the gym.
Yet, it is actually because of those three things that Jasmine is capable to live her life with little fear of what is to come. The choice of health, happiness, and movement are life-changing ones.
When she was age 20, Jasmine was preparing for a spinal fusion to treat severe scoliosis. The surgery would help adjust and hold her spine by using two metal rods and at least a dozen screws and would be followed by a daunting recovery process.  Jasmine would have to relearn how to stand, walk, move, and function on her own before returning to college.

During the preparation process, the doctors asked a series of routine of questions including, "Do you ever feel numbness, tingling, or pins and needles?" Jasmine told the doctor yes, thinking "who doesn't?" However, the degree, frequency, and locations of pins and needles she was experiencing was not normal and thus, further testing began.
An MRI revealed that Jasmine had lesions on her spinal cord and brain. During what was supposed to be the most fun and social time of her life, Jasmine learned that she likely had Multiple Sclerosis, and she was still preparing for a terrifying spinal fusion to boot.

Jasmine’s fusion was a success, and after an arduous and painful recovery she returned to school, but her health challenges weren’t over.  Follow up testing revealed that at just 20 years old, she had Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis.  Over the next several years her doctors worked to find the right medications to help her as she struggled with pain, allergic reactions and extreme side-effects like depression.
Jasmine also started to make some changes on her own. Driven by having own basic mobility taken from her after her spinal fusion, she was no longer taking movement for granted. She began running, paying attention to her nutrition, and frequenting the gym.  Says Jasmine, “I not only realized what a gift movement was by having it taken away, but I also had this looming dread that one day my ability to move might still be taken away, and maybe for good. If there was any chance of that, I wanted to do everything I could now.”
After trying all sorts of fitness, Jasmine ultimately joined a CrossFit affiliate and fell in love with it during her first class.  She recognized that in the years to come she might lose some of her abilities, and she knew that when that time came, she would be able to continue by adapting her workouts or finding someone to help her, regardless of how her MS might eventually look.
Now 26, Jasmine has been symptom-free since starting CrossFit, and her MS specialist encourages her to continue with high intensity exercise.  CrossFit helps Jasmine forget she even has a terrifying disease with no cure and her doctor assures her that her beliefs as to...