Staying connected while feeling isolated is often difficult. Many living with multiple sclerosis (MS) venture to a local support group or in-person education program to seek out those who are also living with MS, but due to a lack of time, geography and other limitations, these options are not always available.

Luckily, in this new digital age, there are other options that exist through social media. These wonderful tools can help to keep you connected to your local community, and the rest of the world at large.

The easiest and most widely used tool for most is Facebook (www.facebook.com). Everyone is on Facebook – children, parents, grandparents, everyone you went to school with, and beyond! The most relevant part of this tool is that a number of great MS resources have pages including MSAA, local support groups, and even MS treatment facilities.

Another option is Twitter (www.twitter.com). Twitter is known for being the go-to social media outlet for celebrities, politicians, and others in the media. The idea behind Twitter is to push out information in very small bites (140 characters max). Try searching #multiplesclerosis using Twitter’s search function and you will be amazed at the conversations you’ll be able to strike up.

Are you looking for a venue to share your viewpoints or creativity with the world? Or simply seeking a sounding board? Consider Tumblr at www.tumblr.com or WordPress at www.wordpress.com. Both sites allow its users to create and customize blogs to share their feelings and thoughts on a variety of topics that can then in turn be shared with friends via email, or other social media tools like those above.

While these are just a few of a multitude of the new social media tools available, they are four widely used options allowing you to stay connected to the world without ever leaving your home.

You can connect with MSAA on Facebook: www.facebook.com/msassociation and Twitter: www.twitter.com/msassociation

Please also check out MSAA’s YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/msaalink and Pinterest page http://pinterest.com/msassociation/link.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this summer’s Swim for MS Pool Party – swimmers, supporters, family, and friends! The generous help and dedication of all involved helped to raise funds to support individuals with multiple sclerosis through the many vital programs and services offered by MSAA.

The Swim for MS Pool Party, part of MSAA’s popular Swim for MS program, took place from Memorial Day to Labor Day 2012. Pool Party volunteers hosted one-day events in their own backyard or community pool – such as swimming laps, doing cannonballs or a game of Marco Polo – and collected pledges from friends and family. A few highlights from this summer’s Pool Party:

Marcus B. from Texas completed 500 jumps in his local pool and raised $100 with his Pool Party.

Jeannie L. in Florida raised over $1,200 by organizing a Synchronized Swim for MS Pool Party for her 50th birthday!

Cody J. of Pennsylvania held a 24 Hour Swim Party and collected over $1,600 to help those with multiple sclerosis.

Coming Soon! Though the summer Pool Party may be coming to an end, be on the lookout for the new and improved year-round Swim for MS, featuring an updated design and easier ways to create, improve, and utilize your Swim pages. Check back regularly at mymsaa.org for more in the coming weeks, or sign up to be the first to know about MSAA’s brand new Swim for MS here!

On Tuesday, September 18 Cherry Hill, NJ Mayor Chuck Cahn was on hand for the official unveiling of a solar panel array that was installed at the Multiple Sclerosis Association of  America’s national headquarters located at 706 Haddonfield Road in Cherry Hill, NJ.

MSAA partnered with Independent Solar of Clinton, NJ to install a 109 kW rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) system consisting of 444 solar panels that will offset roughly 70% of the electricity used at MSAA’s national headquarters.

The system was installed via a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between Independent Solar and MSAA. The PPA is expected to save MSAA more than $146,000 over the next 20 years with zero out of pocket expense.

On September 12, 2012, Sanofi and its subsidiary Genzyme announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved their new drug, Aubagio™ (oral teriflunomide), for relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). The FDA had accepted their New Drug Application (NDA) in October, 2011. This is the ninth disease-modifying therapy approved by the FDA for the long-term treatment of MS. Of these nine, Aubagio is the second approved medication for MS that is taken orally.

This drug is an immunomodulator that affects the production of T and B cells. It inhibits rapidly dividing cells, including activated T cells, which are thought to drive the disease process in MS. It also may inhibit nerve degeneration by reducing the production of free radicals, possibly decreasing the risk of infections and other complications linked to chemotherapy-like drugs.

Aubagio has been approved in two dose levels: 7 mg and 14 mg. The medication is produced in film-coated tablets and is taken once daily, with or without food. Since the higher dose shows greater effectiveness, this dose may be more frequently prescribed. However, for individuals who may be more sensitive to the drug and experience greater side effects, the 7-mg dose may be more appropriate. The drug is expected to be available beginning October 1st.

To read more please visit the MSAA website.

Please be sure to check back, as the latest edition of MSAA’s magazine The Motivator will soon be available which will include more research news.

I closed the blinds and sat in my office in the dark.  Stunned, I replayed the doctor’s message over and over in my head: You have multiple sclerosis (MS). What did this mean? From the literature I had been given it could mean that I could be wheelchair bound at some point in the sickness or have another type of physical ailment.  How much time would I have before this could happen?

I couldn’t focus on anything else except my inability to understand how this could be realistically taking place in my life.  I was healthy. I ate well, ran, and exercised.  The last few years of my life had been full of a lot of stress but I was coping by meditating and taking care of myself, emotionally. It didn’t make sense.

I wondered if it could be a false diagnosis. Things like that happened all the time. One of my best friends had also been told that she might have MS because of her development of optic neuritis (O.N.), which often a precursor to MS. But, for her it turned out to be a singular case of O.N.

What was ironic for me was that I had been tested, in Costa Rica, for multiple sclerosis many years before but those MRI’s came back negative. (It turned out to be interstitial cystitis, which the doctors in Costa Rica could not diagnose.)

But, as I sat there mustering even a seed of hope, deep down I knew that this time it had been different. There was the tingling that I was experiencing in my hands and legs as well as the optic neuritis which did not happen to me the first time.

I couldn’t sort out my emotions but I knew I had to find someone who would be caring enough to give me an explanation. It would be one of many times that I would I need a second opinion.

Many of us share the same story when diagnosed with MS. We are incredulous to the news. Some, like I, don’t even know what the disease entails or have not even heard of it. We demand our previous lives.

I went through the bereavement stages. I was angry and mad that this was happening to me. I had gone through many traumas in my life and I was finally at the point of getting my life back in order. And, yet on the brink, three weeks, of my wedding, I was hit with yet another setback.  I was being tested and I wasn’t sure that I would pass this one.

But, thankfully my grandmother taught me resiliency through her trials and tribulations (She was illiterate and raised as a slave in Puerto Rico) I gathered courage and vowed to beat MS.  Yes, I still have MS but it does not have me.  I struggle with mild setbacks but I am cognizant that they are only “mild.”

I will not give up and with this strength grows my yearning to help, motivate, and encourage others who may not be so fortunate.  I thought my passion in life was to become an artist, but now I think it is to empower others with multiple sclerosis, which you will find out more about Wednesday….