What does living with a chronic condition like multiple sclerosis look like? How does one find strength amidst adversity, and manage to balance motherhood, self-care, and even a bodybuilding journey? I sat down with the inspiring Genevieve Daigle, who has been living with MS since 2011, just after the birth of her first child. She is not just an MS warrior, but also a goal-setter, fitness enthusiast, and committed mom.
Our conversation takes us through Genevieve's introspective journey marked by meditation, journaling, and connecting with the present. She shares how she navigates life, dealing with a chronic condition while grappling with the daily demands of life and motherhood. We also delve into how she advocates for herself within the healthcare system, a lesson in resilience and self-belief that is valuable for all. Her approach to life and her condition is a testament to her mental strength, reminding us all about the power of individual control and decision-making.
This episode with Genevieve goes beyond the story of a woman living with MS; it is an uplifting tale of perseverance, resilience, and unyielding strength that will inspire anyone dealing with a chronic condition. Tune in for an enlightening conversation that will change the way you view adversity.
What does living with a chronic condition like multiple sclerosis look like? How does one find strength amidst adversity, and manage to balance motherhood, self-care, and even a bodybuilding journey? I sat down with the inspiring Genevieve Daigle, who has been living with MS since 2011, just after the birth of her first child. She is not just an MS warrior, but also a goal-setter, fitness enthusiast, and committed mom.
Our conversation takes us through Genevieve's introspective journey marked by meditation, journaling, and connecting with the present. She shares how she navigates life, dealing with a chronic condition while grappling with the daily demands of life and motherhood. We also delve into how she advocates for herself within the healthcare system, a lesson in resilience and self-belief that is valuable for all. Her approach to life and her condition is a testament to her mental strength, reminding us all about the power of individual control and decision-making.
This episode with Genevieve goes beyond the story of a woman living with MS; it is an uplifting tale of perseverance, resilience, and unyielding strength that will inspire anyone dealing with a chronic condition. Tune in for an enlightening conversation that will change the way you view adversity.
Welcome to the Mentally Strong Podcast. I'm Colum Sutherland. Join me on my journey as I explore and discover all there is to know about living well with multiple sclerosis. I'm a normal guy who has recently diagnosed and started treatment. I will share with you my conversations with others who are living with this chronic condition and with professionals who provide resources and advice. My hope is that you gain inspiration and ideas to improve your life. Welcome to, or welcome back, the Mentally Strong Podcast. I'm very excited about today's episode because we're going to all walk away inspired. My guest today grew up in Toronto and Ottawa and she has settled her roots here in Ottawa with her young family. She's known as being an avid goal setter, life challenger, fitness enthusiast mother and wife. She has recently accomplished two of her goals becoming a bodybuilder and playing the bass guitar before her 40th birthday. As a mom to two preteens and a baby, she has overcome many obstacles, including living with MS Jean-Vier Deg. Welcome to the Mentally Strong.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Thanks for coming on. Super excited to have you here today after hearing your story. It's inspiring and if you didn't have multiple sclerosis, I think it would be inspiring based on some of the stuff that you've accomplished so far. With the addition of that, it's mindset really does matter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I mean sometimes I step back and I look at my life, and no, I do. I look into my life and I do appreciate everything and I think that I've come a long way, regardless of my situation. So, thank, you Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Let's start with your multiple sclerosis journey. And when did that start and how? What does that look like or what has that looked like for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I was diagnosed in 2011, so I had just had my baby and it was just before her first birthday, actually and I decided to get back into the fitness world. You know, like any typical woman, we always want to go back to our pre-pregnancy bodies, and so I just figured, you know what, why not start trying to become more active? I knew what kind of lifestyle I wanted to live, you know, having a young baby. So it actually happened during a workout, literally, I got, I was doing bear crawls and thought I got dirt in my eye. And, you know, went back home and thought, yeah, I had a great workout, but, man, getting dirt in your eye really, really sucks. And that was on Friday and the weekend rolled in, my eye was still hurting. I was so fortunate to be able to go into a walk-in clinic and the doctor there flat out said you know what? I don't know what's wrong, but I'm going to send you to a specialist that can tell you what could be wrong. So I was so, so lucky in that sense, got into the eye clinic right away and you know, it's not even a long story, it just boom, boom, boom. Went to the eye clinic, got my eyes checked, I was told that my optic nerve was swollen and then they shortly sent me to the MS clinic and did some more testing there.
Speaker 2:It's a typical diagnosis for a lot of young, healthy women who are in their childbearing ages. And just went from there Definitely was caught off guard. Because you know, I'm trying to take care of myself and the last thing that you, that a young woman, would expect is to be diagnosed with something that could deteriorate your health over time, right? So you're trying to take care of your health. At the same time you're being told your health is going to deteriorate. So I was definitely shocked. I probably my husband wasn't more shocked than I was.
Speaker 2:You know you're being thrown a lot of different things when you're getting diagnosed with something, so let alone me just having a baby. You know they throw a lot of stuff at you when you first have a baby and you're lots of hormonal changes, becoming a new mother, a parent, your world kind of gets thrown upside down. But knowing the type of person that I am and if you know the people that surround you, they know that adversity can get thrown at me and I just take it with oh, I don't want to say like a grain of salt, but I definitely. I cry a couple of tears and then I move on and say, okay, well, this is my life, let's see how best I can make it right. And so that's been. My journey ever since is just, you know, rolling with the punches and taking every day, every day by day, and yeah, so that's that's, and that's been almost 13 years now. When I think about it, I you know, I don't it's, I try not to let it affect me too much. Yeah, 13 years.
Speaker 1:So it's a long time ago. I'm wondering, if you think back on it, if having the baby may have helped you get through it in terms of I have to be okay for the baby.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think so because, looking back, I did this a couple years ago where I just I looked back at my lifestyle and how I Missed some of the signs, how I look back and I was thinking of certain parts of my life that I thought, okay, wait a minute, maybe that was like a trigger right there, you know, leading up to that actual diagnosis. Yeah, it's, that's, that's so true. You know, sometimes you're thrown some heavy stuff In your life. Then you have to be strong, right? Especially having a girl as your first child. I just wanted to be super, super strong for her. There are not many females in my in my family, so I'm one of Less than a handful. So, knowing that my first born was a girl, you know, I just wanted to be super, super strong for her and I just wanted to show her the way, you know, things are thrown at you in life, you can still be a strong person, a strong woman absolutely.
Speaker 1:When you had your second child, was there any Complications due to multiple sclerosis or did it affect you in any way?
Speaker 2:Luckily, from my first to my second there's two and a half there, two and a half years apart, and my first pregnancy was great. There was no issues. I loved being pregnant Second time around though I don't know if it's a boy thing, because I have two boys that was a definitely a challenging pregnancy. Recovery from that was even more challenging, and so I don't like to I try not to equate my diagnosis, my condition, to everything that gets thrown At my life. That's good, that gets thrown my way. I I just try to decipher it and sometimes I just say, ah, you know what, today I'm just tired, like it's just because I'm a parent, or I didn't sleep well, or I don't like associating everything to my condition. How I see my life is that, you know, everybody gets dealt a deck of cards and so this is my deck of cards and it's just a matter of like how well I'm gonna play my hand. So, going back to you know, my second pregnancy Recovery, I don't, you know, looking back, I don't know if my condition had affected it too much, but being you can ask any woman, any parent, even you know a dad having a toddler and a newborn, it's definitely you go from one to two and you realize like, okay, I can't just like. You have to tag team all the time. There's no more like everybody has to be in the ring at the same time because you have to right like you're, you're not. There's an even amount of kids versus parents.
Speaker 2:So, that being said, yeah, it was definitely like my body took a long time to recover and, and maybe some of it was due to my condition, but for sure, just recovery from the birth itself was, was tough. So, and then there's a gap, there's a huge gap between my last one to this one. I have an almost eight month old right now and and it's definitely I'm a new mom. I'm a new mom. It's like starting fresh all over again, and I find that this time around, my MS has has affected me significantly more than my last two kids. I'm also older, so Not to say that I'm old, but it definitely affects you. I was very fortunate. My whole health care team never considered me as being you know, quote-unquote a geriatric Pregnancy. They just looked at me like you know what you're, you're fit before pregnancy. If you can continue just staying fit, you know you're good to go.
Speaker 1:You said it affected you during the last pregnancy. Were you show it? Were you showing symptoms or flare-ups before you got pregnant, or?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes. So just before I would say five years after having my first son I was presenting with like Tingling and a numbing sensation. Nothing major, just a little of an annoyance, and then from there just kind of progressed. Now to the outside world, you can't tell the difference, right? I'm one of those very fortunate ones that my MS doesn't present itself Physically in the sense where people can actually see what's going on.
Speaker 2:But I know when I get tired I tend to slow down a little or I have a drop foot, and so that's the thing, like with my hands. They've just been progressively getting more numb, more tingly. So it's for me how I describe it is more like a, you know, it's like a having a burn on your hand and recovering from that, and so it's just been an ongoing annoyance. Or, yeah, the last five, six years it's in, it was ongoing throughout my pregnancy. So the challenge with that Not just because it's annoying but it, you know, picking up little things or just not having the amount of strength that I typically have In my hands my hands get tired a lot faster. The small Little pleasures I take in, like sewing, or when I first picked up, when I first picked up playing the bass guitar. You know it's a lot more challenging Then. It would be for just the average person that doesn't have the sensation in their hands. So that's definitely how it's affected me.
Speaker 1:I'm doing math in my head for how old the kids are. Have they noticed?
Speaker 2:No, so you know when you first go to the clinic and they give you all the information how to talk to your family or loved ones, if you have a young family, how do you approach them. But you address things appropriately, need appropriate Discussions, and so I Try to be straightforward with my kids. Myself and my husband's are the same age, so we're four months apart. So get to see him go through things first and see how he kind of like coax and adapts and I don't think I'm gonna have the same reaction. But I, like I said I, I felt a shift in my life and I'm coming to realize how, you know, I really have to plan for the future and and for the worst case scenario a plan for like a meteor case Scenario, you know and how to prepare everybody in my life for those things, just so that it doesn't feel like a huge Rucking ball coming at them.
Speaker 1:How do?
Speaker 2:you get.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how do you feel about it when you're thinking about it? Because what you're saying really resonates with me in terms of what I've been thinking about the last four months.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's definitely like I said, there's been a shift in my life and it's a lot of I wouldn't say soul searching, but it's definitely a lot of internalizing a lot of things, just not just as a mother or a wife, just as an individual. So, you know, people need to realize you're with you 24 seven. You know people don't understand like you are your voice in your head, you're your voice of reason, you're your voice of, like, insanity of everything, right? So when I had, when I started thinking about those things like, okay, how am I going to make myself, how am I going to make this situation better for myself? Because I'm with me all the time, right, I'm in charge of me, I'm in charge of what I do, as much as other people's reactions, words, everything may affect me. Still, at the end of the day, I'm in charge of me.
Speaker 2:And how can I make my life better because I'm with me all the time, all the time? It's definitely easier said than done, but that's that's what I think of. I think of how can I make things better for myself, even just taking a moment to sit and be present. That's hard. That is the hardest thing I think I've ever done in my life is sit and be present and feel everything, not just feel it like after, but feel it in the moment it is. It is hard, it's really hard. So that's what I've been doing for the past like six, definitely six months and a little more. But just nearing my birthday, it's a lot of internal thinking processing.
Speaker 1:What does that look like for you? Is that meditation? Is it going for a walk? Is it just sitting still?
Speaker 2:I definitely love walks. I wish I could do more of them. There are several things that stop me or delay me. I don't want to say stop me, because I try and find a way around it regardless, but having a newborn, you think that it's super easy to just not throw the baby in the carrier but get the baby in the stroller and then just go for a stroll. Especially with the weather that we've been having lately, you don't realize how challenging it can be with the tornado warning that we had recently, with the rain, then the forest fires. Those type of things just affect your everyday life and you don't think so. But for me, when I think of these things, I journal a lot. I journal a lot. I try to journal as much as I can.
Speaker 2:Walking is definitely a big thing and just having little moments to myself. It's so hard to just remove myself from the family unit, but that's what it looks like. For me is walking journaling. I've done meditation in the past. It's lovely. I think that I could probably get back into it. I'd love to get back into yoga as well. It's finding those things that you used to enjoy and trying to find those aha moments that you did enjoy. To get back to that. It's getting started is the hardest part. But once you're in it, it's like, yes, I remember this. So when you're bringing that up, how do I find those things? I'm having that moment right now. Yes, I remember meditating and I did enjoy it, and I remember doing yoga and I really enjoyed it. So right now, for me it's definitely journaling, walking and taking a moment, just being myself. But yeah, I'd like to pick up more on those other things that I've enjoyed in the past, just to connect more with myself.
Speaker 1:You have three children, a husband. I think it's pretty understandable that you're not carrying all the balls that you want to carry.
Speaker 2:That's another conversation itself. That's for another.
Speaker 1:There's been about three episodes. I could have taken it of what you said so far. It would be very easy to go into, very easy. I was like, no, we can't touch that today or we'll be here all day. Did you journal before or is this something that you just started or been off and on.
Speaker 2:I've always journaled when I was younger. I've been very fortunate that I've been on trips. My mom used to take us on trips and I remember, as we got older we were taken out of school, outside of the school breaks, and so during that time my mom would give us like homework, I guess you could say or maybe it was an agreement with the teachers, but we used to. We'd have to journal what we did during the day and oh, I hated it.
Speaker 2:What 10-year-old wants to write? You know, even though we were outside, we were exploring and doing tons of stuff. At the end of the day, who wants to write about that stuff? But we didn't have a choice. I got into the hang of it and I thought and I traveled a lot more when I was in high school. That was my thing was traveling and I thought this is such a great idea because I get to reminisce what I wrote about and like what I experienced, and so that's how my journaling journey came to be. So that's where I caught the bug. Ever since then I would say in the last 10 years, I think I've picked it up a lot more.
Speaker 2:You know I wasn't really happy with it when I was younger, but definitely now I would say it's more like of a daily or weekly thing versus before. It was just go on trips and write what you did and I think that's another thing with MS is that how it affects you not just physically but mentally. You know, there are things that I do remember and things that I just don't like the idea of being able to write about it and reminisce about it, reread everything that I've written. I'm just finding joy in that.
Speaker 1:It's really nice to hear how you're speaking about your experience and I say that in terms of someone else who has multiple sclerosis, and just a lot of what you're saying is resonating with me, because I go through similar things to different levels, and I guess MSRELOVES Company or it's or someone else there is going through the same process as I am. The reason that I wanted to do this podcast is because sometimes, when you're by yourself going through it, regardless of who else is around you, if they don't, if they're not going through the exact same thing you are.
Speaker 1:Yes you can feel alone and one of the ones. It's just it's not stuck in the head. You said it is not trying to attach the condition to everything that's happening to you, like Maybe I just had it bad at sleep.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's right and it's true, like I appreciate that, that Nobody can understand you better than someone else. That Can relate to that, you know. Other people can relate to Having a bad sleep, but it's like sometimes it's exacerbated by, you know, one or the other.
Speaker 2:It's absolutely toss of a coin, like not going off topic, but like I just went go-karting for my brother's birthday and I had to tap out. I was like I can't do more than 35 minutes max and I was literally. It looked like somebody Like through the go-kart at me when I got out of the out of the co-cart and people are like you, okay, and I'm like, yeah, I'm, that's right here. Like is my condition? Is just it? It hit, you know, it hit me hard and I definitely just need to take a break. And and Luckily, you know, my stepmom was there and she totally understood.
Speaker 2:But I Tried to explain that to some of my friends and it was just like, oh, okay, and it's like you just don't get it, like I don't want you to feel sorry for me, but it's just one of those experiences that you just you can't appreciate. You know and I think I'm sure, column, that you understand and appreciate, like what I'm talking about that sometimes you're doing an activity and you're so gung-ho into it and then you stop and you're like, oh, I am definitely winded in some sort of way that I was not expecting and I need to take hot minute to just Sit and take a breather Other mentally, mentally or physically, and I'm sure you understand and appreciate that 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it for me Looking for, seeking control. And then it. So if it's a workout, and the workout is extra hard not because the workouts extra hard, but because I'm not feeling right, whether it's heat or vertigo or what have you Then I go through the day before. It's like what did I do? It's like, okay, I did this, this, this. I didn't drink a healthy, I did everything right. But I'm still getting this and Sometimes it's hard to accept.
Speaker 1:Yeah and this conversation. It's like who do I call to talk to about this person unless you've experienced it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's just a vent or just like you're. You don't want to feel like you're going crazy, right, like you just have to verbally get it out and say, like I know, I just experienced this. I'm not going crazy, this is not Not going out of my mind, right? It's something that I've experienced and you need to share that with somebody who has those same type of experiences.
Speaker 1:It sounds we have a similar attitude to that. We don't want that to be the default. Yes, like it's okay if we're tired because we didn't sleep last night, or maybe this is just a really crappy work out. Yeah exactly to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and just to be validated and to say you know what, it's okay. It's okay to have a crappy day, it's a whether it's you know you had a bad sleep or it is the MS, for whatever reason, wants to kick in today. That it's okay, I See you, I hear you, you know, and that's that. It's just being seen, I think.
Speaker 1:Agreed and I think that's across the board. That's not, that's not just people with a chronic condition, that's in general.
Speaker 2:It's okay to have a bad day. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:If you, if you're on day 28 of having 28 bad days, you might want to take some action. But as far as it's okay to have a bad day as a mom, as a dad, worker, whatever, it's totally okay.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 1:I'm scared to ask this question, but I'm going to because I think it needs to be talked about. What's your experience been with the health care system in terms of you dealing with your multiple sclerosis?
Speaker 2:It's been so. So I have to say, in the last Month, had you asked me this question like I don't know, like two months ago or something, I would have been like. Well, you know, I tried to advocate for myself and it's and it's hard because not only do I have to advocate for myself but I have to advocate for three other you know human beings that are not of legal age. So puts a lot of pressure on me and I have, you know, adulting is hard. But, that being said, I would say in the last month I've been very fortunate and I hope that that outcome is what I'm looking for and I put it out there, I put out the energy out there and I told myself that I can find these specialists to help me. I Plan on seeing, and I knew that these specialists are out there, I just couldn't find them. I'm going to see. I have an appointment with a neuro physio In the next couple of weeks and I knew that there were these type of professions. I just didn't know if they were available to us, especially locally Healthful. As much as it's there to support you, it's all based off of research and we're all grouped into this pool and the help, you know. They basically say you know, a health care practitioner will just say, well, the majority of people that have this condition or that suffer from this benefit more on x, y and z and it's like, okay, great, but I'm still an individual person. Nature versus nurture, I do not have the same background, the same upbringing. There's so many different variables that I want to be seen as an individual. So you can throw at me like, okay, well, the majority of people that have the same Symptoms as you, the same anything as you, will go in this direction. I will look at it, I will think it over and then I'll get back to them and say, okay, this is what I want to do.
Speaker 2:And I think that those that are listening, that have had this condition or any chronic condition or any health issue that they've had Consistently or that has showed up in their life so often that they can recognize the issues that it causes them to say, hey, look like me as an individual, this route is just not gonna work for me, right? I remember when I was first diagnosed and then they told me that I had to go on medication and they gave me all these pamphlets and Luckily I was going on vacation the next couple of weeks with my husband and we brought the pamphlets with us. We hold ourselves Okay, let's have a good time For the first part of our trip and then the second part me to take at least one part of the day, sit down and talk about my options, because this is real. This is real and you know we have to go back and forth. Then we ended up choosing the right path that worked for me, right?
Speaker 2:That being said, like just how I trust health care it's. It's like a. I say it's 50 50. I Say right now it's going in the direction I want it to go, but it's been a long journey. It's been a long journey having to advocate for myself and knowing what works and what doesn't work for me, and I think that's what Everybody that's going through a chronic illness, that's what they need to do. They think that they need to really Sit down with themselves and say, like I'm an individual, I need to advocate for myself.
Speaker 2:And with health care, is that and I've worked in health care and they push it. They make it sound like, if you don't do what we tell you to do, you're gonna die, or they make you feel it's true, they make you feel like this is detrimental if you decide not to go the path that we say is the safest for you. You know, and I think that people, really you shouldn't feel intimidated Don't get me wrong like I feel intimidated from time to time when it comes to that, when I'm being approached with that information, but at the end of the day, I have to tell myself that you know what, let me think about it. I'll get back to you and Come up with my answer as to how I want to approach this, whether it's holistically, whether it's Whatever direction that I feel is Best for me and my family. So I hope that kind of like sums up everything how I feel.
Speaker 2:You know, and I'm hoping that my Meeting with this neuro physio is gonna go great. I put it out there Right now that it is. I'm seeing other specialists right now other specialists, physio specialists and their own respective parts of physio that they're helping me out as well, but it's I feel like it's my time to really sit with myself and really take care of of every part of me, right, not just well, what meds am I gonna pop into my mouth today or I'm gonna inject myself with today to slow down the ms. It's not just that. It's like how has it affected me globally, like my strengths, physically, mentally, psychologically how is that being affected? Right, I've gone to therapy before Personal therapy, just to deal with my own stuff, and that's something I'll probably visit as well. You have to find the right healthcare specialists that gel with well, and that that takes time. It takes time.
Speaker 1:It's advocating for yourself. What I like about that is we have actually a little bit different views on it, but it's still advocating for yourself, because when I was being encouraged to start medication, I wasn't being told I was being this is what I think you should do. I had a different view of like just tell me what I need to do to be better and I'll do it right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I totally get that Different for everybody.
Speaker 1:And you did. The words you use were advocate for yourself.
Speaker 1:So I'm saying this because it's about you. It's what works for you. For me, it was give me the direction, I'll do it For you. It's give me choices, let me go on vacation and research it and I'll come back to you and the holistic part of it, from my understanding of this condition. Everything plays into it Stress, nutrition, exercise, mental health yes, I can probably keep going. It all plays into how you feel and how you're triggered or can't think of a better word. But does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, for sure. And like you said, I mean, everybody is an individual, they're all very different, but it does come back to advocating. And even there are times in my life where I'm just like just give me the red pill, like, just tell me what I need to do. Is it the red pill or the blue pill, I can't remember, but you know and I get it, and I think you know. After that, you realize you're able to make sound decisions after that as well, like, okay, this worked for me, great or no, this didn't work for me, what are my other options?
Speaker 2:It's still like you said. It's still advocating for yourself. So you're taking control, you're taking power and saying this is what I want for me. How are you going to help me achieve or get to where I want to be now? It's either your decision, making yourself, or you would rather depend on somebody else to make some decisions for you. It's still, at the end of the day, being true to yourself. That's what it is. Being true to yourself and advocating for yourself that's the most important thing.
Speaker 1:Actually I wonder if I'm speaking to tie it together. I wonder if I had a friend with me when I was getting that news, if it would have been easier because I was trying to take in the news and make a decision.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Which, pretty safe to say, I wasn't in my best state of mind at that present moment, as emotions are flooding up. So let's tie it back to significant other, friend, parent, whoever it is being there and supporting you as you're taking in the news and going through it. I think that would be helpful for anyone.
Speaker 2:Yes, and it's definitely. And just because I have a life partner doesn't always mean that he's going to be the one to be there for everything. Right, having a confidant or anybody that you know is there is your cheerleader, 100%, who is there to back you up and go with. When I say cheerleader, not to say that they shouldn't throw in their own opinions, right, you don't want somebody who's like, yes, yes, just go with that, like I'm here for you, what happened to you? No, you need somebody who is going to be straightforward with you, right For good, for bad. It doesn't have to be your life partner, but anybody that you know, that knows you well and that can be there for you.
Speaker 2:You know, even it's like with my last birth, I was like you know what, at this point, I could care less if my husband was there as long as I have like a good midwife free team. Because, like one of the midwives, I swear I never had this experience with my last two and she touched some trigger points on my body. I was like where were you? Why weren't you there for my last two births? I'm never giving birth again, but you are like a God sent, or somebody sent you to me and you just do the job and my husband can catch the baby or like he can do skin to skin after, but I need you to be there with me, you know. So I love how is tying everything back with having somebody that is there, that gets you, that understands you and is there in your corner 100%. And I remember she even, like, tried to encourage me to. She's like you want this to go faster, we can do this. And I was like I'm good, you know, but we were on the same page, we were speaking the same language, we were feeling the same vibes and it was. It was a great experience.
Speaker 2:But it just goes back to anything that goes on in life. You gotta find those people that are there to support you and that get you. You know, that know who you are as an individual and that they're there to support you and can be your reasoning at the end of the day. So, like I would have brought anyone else with me to my appointment. And you know his way of thinking is very different from mine. I'm very like hot headed a lot of the times and he's very like doesn't show a lot of emotions. He's a logical thinker most of the time it just it gels really really well together and we're able to come together at the same table and we're able to talk about those things.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, logically does this make sense and emotionally does this make sense? And you know, it just goes together beautifully.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, thank you, it is, you're saying it and I'm like I picture a teeter-totter with logic on one side and motion on the other side, and it balances out right. It's a beautiful thing, so we're gonna pretend we're out of time so that it's within our control instead of a baby's control. Jean-vieve has been kind enough to say she'll come back on because we didn't get anywhere close to where we were gonna go today.
Speaker 2:I like to talk.
Speaker 1:What you all don't know her fitness is a big passion.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I wanna learn more about the story of the bass guitar, and I believe it was three years ago you competed in bodybuilding.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was during COVID.
Speaker 1:So we're gonna talk about that next time. We're gonna hear that story how a mom of two at the time, with multiple sclerosis, goes from being fit to a bodybuilder in a fairly short period of time, which we're not gonna give away today. We'll save that for later.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But your story is incredible. You're incredibly well-spoken, thank you, and I am super excited to hear the story I thought I might have heard today later.
Speaker 2:Oh well, I look forward to sharing it. It's a great, my stories are great, I love my stories and I can't wait to share it Awesome.