On this episode of Money, I’m Home, Lynne is joined by Consumers Lending Underwriter Becky Nap to discuss her journey with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and the MS Society helps those who are battling the disease.

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0:00:06.6 Lynne Jarman-Johnson: Money, I’m Home! Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. From finance to fitness, we have it all. One of the things that Consumers Credit Union is so proud of, all of us as team members, is how we really focus on specific charities and specific events that really make an impact on our health and well-being. And over the last few years, we have had the opportunity to share a MS Journey, Multiple Sclerosis. It is something that impacts pretty much every single person that I have ever run into has a story about someone who has been affected with MS. And joining us today, as she has for now, multiple years in a row, is Becky Nap. Now, Becky works with us here at Consumers. She also is the staunchest advocate of MS, and the reason being because she is living it every day and has been so open on her journey about what has transpired. And Becky, let’s just say first, thank you so much for being with us, we so appreciate the fact that you tell us exactly what’s going on in your life. Let’s back up a little bit and start at the beginning. Tell us first who you are, what you’re doing with Consumers, and then let’s start about your journey to catch people up who maybe haven’t heard it before.

0:01:24.7 Becky Nap: Absolutely. Well, good morning, I’m so excited to be here as always. It’s a pleasure to be able to speak a little bit on the journey and the importance of advocating for MS research and finding a cure. I work at Consumers Credit Union as a consumer lending underwriter, so I get to decide, do you get a car loan? Do you get a home equity? All that fun stuff.

0:01:44.5 LJJ: I mean, you’re really good at it, you’re nice…

[chuckle]

0:01:46.6 BN: How to be really good at it, yeah. I love what I do, so it’s a pleasure. I’ve got a great team. So my journey with MS started back in 2009. I just woke up one morning and felt like a little bit numb and tingling and I’m like, “Well, that’s weird. What’s going on?” I thought maybe I slept funny, and then by the end of the day, my entire right-hand side was tingling, numb, kind of painful, the entire thing from top to bottom, and I was like, “What in the world is going on?”

0:02:11.4 LJJ: And this came out of nowhere, you were perfectly healthy?

0:02:15.3 BN: Yes. Literally, it was the day before 4th of July, and I was like, “What is happening?” So, I ended up in the ER, and I actually got really lucky because it sometimes can take months and months to get diagnosed, and so I ended up with a resident who actually boarded out MS almost immediately. And after an MRI, Spinal Tap, blood test, I was diagnosed officially with MS, and I had to go on to steroid in treatments, that’s kind of how my journey started, was immediately hospital steroid infusions in full force.

0:02:45.7 LJJ: So, Becky, tell me something. Here you are, you’re young.

0:02:47.8 BN: Yes.

0:02:49.0 LJJ: It’s a 4th of July weekend, and this news comes to you out of the blue. How were you feeling?

0:02:56.6 BN: I was terrified. I was actually completely alone, because it was the 4th of July we got in, so my family and my sister were at parties, and so I was alone, and I literally called my parents and said, “I don’t know what’s happening, but you need to get here right now, because I think it’s serious.” So that first few months was just completely overwhelming, because with MS, we’ve truly wake up every day and have legitimately no idea what’s going to happen, because there isn’t usually… Every once in a while, you can feel a little things, but a lot of times it’s just you wake up and you’re numb, you’re tingly, your eyesight is gone, so many things that can happen, and it’s different for every single person. So, it’s just that unknown that really gets you, especially at the beginning.

0:03:41.1 LJJ: And your ups and downs, you have really journaled those. You’ve been very open about helping people understand. It’s not only the physical and emotional, but it’s trying to weave through all of the impact that insurance has, the fear of not being able to get treatment and drugs, where are you right now with that, and what has happened along that journey?

0:04:05.9 BN: Yeah, absolutely. At Consumers, we have amazing insurance, and so I’ve been very blessed with my MRIs and steroid infusions and all of that, having good coverage, but a lot of people are not blessed in that situation, and really it is a panic type of situation because you need those treatments in order to feel better, to get better, to figure out what’s going on with you and your body. Drugs are a huge, huge thing with MS, so the current medication that I’m on right now is called Vumerity. It’s one of the newer medications, and I actually just looked it up again, it’s currently between $6000 and $7000 a month. And currently right now, and I actually just in the mail, last week, I got another letter saying that my insurance will not cover the drug right now, and I’d been getting that paid for for free by the drug company right now because they need the research of, “Hey, is this working for you?” But I’m just waiting for the day that they are like, “Hey, we can’t pay for it anymore,” because they’ve been doing that for two years. But it’s a newer medication and so, well, it’s been really good for me and it’s been helping me a ton.

0:05:11.9 BN: My insurance is like, “Oh, we don’t know, because it’s new.” And so that’s why things like Walk MS and those fundraisers are so crucial, because then the National MS Society can partner along with those of us struggling with MS, to help us figure out how to pay for medications and treatments and things like that, because it is scary.

0:05:29.5 LJJ: And Becky, tell us about support groups. You mentioned the fact that Consumers, and we are your family, I know your family is a huge support group, if people are listening and they have questions or fears or would just like to talk with somebody, how important has that been for you?

0:05:45.1 BN: I’m in a couple of different groups, so I have just like a random Facebook group, that’s people that are actually fairly local to Kalamazoo area that all have it, and then new people get added as they get diagnosed, and I think that is one of the most crucial things is talking to other people that actually have MS, that can answer like, “Is this my MS? Is that not my MS? What is your experience? Hey, I’ve got this happening to my body, is there anything that you did that helped it?” Something that happens to me quite often is, it feels like bugs are crawling in my legs, and it makes me want to lose my mind. [chuckle] And so I do silly things, so when I have people over and it happens, I’m just like, “Don’t mind me crawling on the floor like a crazy person, but this is what makes me feel better.” And so those support groups and the MS Society has tons of ways to get connected and talk to other people that are dealing with it, talk to experts in the field, to get help and resources, it’s really crucial that you’re not in it alone. I don’t know how anyone could be in it alone. I’ve been so blessed, like I said, my work family, you guys have always been completely amazing.

0:06:50.4 BN: I’ve been here eight years now and have been working with the MS side of things the entire time, and we’ve done fun things from duck taping managers and water balloon fights, but it’s just so amazing to have that support. My family is phenomenal. So don’t be afraid to reach out to people. And that is why I’m such a big advocate of it, because you can’t be in it alone, you have to know that other people are there for you.

0:07:14.1 LJJ: You know, you bring up a great point. What happened when COVID hit? I mean, that had to be extremely scary because there were points of time that, did you not get to seek treatment? How did that work?

0:07:28.1 BN: I actually had an episode during COVID and so it was, I would say definitely tougher, it was one of the harder fights that I had getting treatment. And you do have to be your own advocate too, because sometimes that can be hard to get in to get an MRI, it can be hard to get in to get steroid treatments. And so during the COVID season, it was quite difficult. I knew I was in an episode, I had actually lost my eyesight and I knew I needed the steroids and it was Christmas time, and so I had to just call and call and call and call and call truly, until they rushed me to finally get an MRI, and then they were able to squeeze me in, in not ideal timing, but squeeze me in for the steroid treatments and so it definitely played a role in it, for sure.

0:08:16.4 LJJ: Well, I know that you also are raising a beautiful daughter, and that has to be that a journey that you’re walking together.

0:08:24.6 BN: Yeah, absolutely. She’s very aware of my disease. Her least favorite thing is when my body feels funny and I don’t want to touch her. [chuckle] It happens every few weeks or whatever my body just… I can’t even explain it really. It’s hard to explain, it’s just like a very weird feeling in my body, and I don’t want anyone to touch me, and so she really does not like that, but she understands and so she’ll be very aware and we’re a pretty faithful family, so sometimes she… I was struggling actually this weekend, stress is a trigger for your MS. And so I’m a little stressed out currently, and so I actually started an episode while I was teaching Sunday school, I wasn’t sure if it was a full episode or what was happening, but my whole left leg went numb and tingling. I’m like, “What’s happening?” So, she’ll pray over me and she’ll rub my leg or whatever, but she’s amazing. It can be hard for her to understand sometimes because she’s 10, but as she gets older, she understands more and more and she’s insanely supportive of it.

0:09:19.8 LJJ: I’ll tell you what, you have helped out so many people as you continue to tell us about your journey with MS, Becky, and I know that Consumers supports MS very strongly. We do our walks, we do our biking, we do the fun things internally too that you spoke about, but anybody who is listening, if you want to be a part of our team, you don’t have to be a member, and you don’t have to be an employee, but boy, we’d like it if you were both.

0:09:47.8 BN: Yeah, we sure would. [chuckle]

0:09:50.0 LJJ: But we definitely would love to have you on our MS team. So, head over to our website and you can look underneath our charitable events and get signed up as they get closer. Becky, anything else you’d like to say? Thank you so much for your time, we really do appreciate how open you are with everything that’s going on, and blessings to you, and peace and good health as we continue on this great fight.

0:10:14.8 BN: Thank you so much, Lynne. I just appreciate so much the support of my Consumers family, and the opportunity to share a little bit and to give people hope that… You know, my biggest thing I always say is with MS, you might have even 100 bad days, but you’re still going to have 265 good ones, so just keep the hope alive and a positive attitude goes a long way.

0:10:34.5 LJJ: Becky, thank you so much. What a wonderful thought, “Keep the hope alive.” Everybody, if you would like to donate and/or donate your time, please do so, head over to Consumers, we’ll help you out. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson, I’d like to thank Jake Esselink for his production skills, and if you have a topic that you’d like us to share, just send it our way. We do these weekly podcasts, I’ll tell you what, we are over 200 podcasts strong and we’d love to hear your voice, too. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson, from finance to fitness, Money, I’m home!

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