Episode 114 - Love, Support, and MS: A Conversation with Cathy and Gary Chester

I'm delighted to present my recent chat with my almost-namesake Cathy Chester and her husband Gary. Cathy and Gary began dating in 1985, the year before Cathy's diagnosis, which means that at the time of recording they have been together for nearly 40 years - incredible!

Cathy and Gary share valuable insights into the importance of communication and mutual respect in maintaining a happy and successful marriage, especially when facing the challenges of MS. They also emphasized the importance of empathy and understanding in their relationship. They acknowledge each other's needs and emotions, whether it's taking a break for self-care or providing support during difficult times.

As an award-winning writer and certified health advocate, Cathy is dedicated to helping other MSers feel less lonely, isolated and overwhelmed than she did when she was diagnosed. She is passionate about helping those with MS feel better about themselves and the world around them.

It was such an honor to be able to interview and meet them both. I hope that you'll be able to feel the love and support they give to each other.

DISCLAIMER
The information in this podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment.

Links and resources:

Sign up for the 10 Weeks to Disrupt MS Program

Connect with Cathy on Instagram
Read Cathy's blog, An Empowered Spirit
Watch Cathy's Ted-like talk, Cathy Chester—I Wish I Knew
Read Katie Couric's profile of Cathy, An MS Advocate On Raising Awareness of Living With a Chronic Illness

If you're interested in having Kathy speak at your event, learn more here

Find out more about the DMAT Fitness Training program

You can find Kathy Chester at:
msdisrupted@gmail.com
disruptfitnessgym@gmail.com
moveitorloseit109@gmail.com

Connect with @msdisrupted on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok

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Transcript

Kathy Chester:
Hello, I'm your host, Kathy Chester, and welcome to the Move It or Lose It podcast, a podcast about all things that move the mind, body, and soul. The Move It or Lose It podcast is for information, awareness, and inspirational purposes only. I am not a doctor and I don't even play one on TV. So please consult with your doctor before making any medical decisions. The views expressed by advertisers, guests, or contributors are their opinions and not necessarily the views of the Move It or Lose It podcast. Today, I have not just Cathy Chester, the other Cathy Chester, but her husband, Gary, as well. So welcome to Move It or Lose It, both of you. Thank you, Kathy. Thanks, Kath. I wanted the two of you on. I know, like I said in the beginning, Gary, what is it like to be married to the queen of MS?


Gary Chester:
It's a thrill a minute. It's joyful.


Kathy Chester:
Totally predictable. Exactly, right? Just like the disease in itself. Right? But she is the queen. You have represented multiple sclerosis for so many years, given so much awareness. You still do. You never stop. I can never not read your post. A, I know you get mad. So if anyone answers like they didn't read it, I know for certain she's going to be on that. So I'm like, don't don't you do a heart or a like if you've not read it and it's worth the read. So for you not to read one of your posts, you're really missing out. Obviously, you're a writer and what you put in your post is so meaningful. So thank you for what you do.


Cathy Chester:
Well, thank you. I appreciate that, because when I started especially my blog, I was, because I'm a little introverted, believe it or not. And I was always nervous about speaking my truth 100% because my mom would be reading it or my, you know, my close family. And I saw that the first post, as Elizabeth Gilbert says, I broke myself open. Then I got more responses and more great conversation. And I said, hell with this, you know, we have to speak our truth and stand in it. and create more awareness that way. And who are we helping by not doing it?


Kathy Chester:
So... Right, right. Thank you for that. So, Kathy, take us back to diagnosis time, to that, just the car accident, the feeling that you had afterwards.


Cathy Chester:
Yeah, so I graduated college in 1981. And a couple of weeks later, my friends, their family had a house up in Vermont. I was living in New Jersey. And we thought that we'd all get together. And I drove up there, and it had one of its famous snowstorms. This must have been more than three weeks after graduation. This was in the winter. You know, Vermont is known for those little covered bridges that are plentiful. So we decided that we didn't care about the snowstorm. We're going to go out and do whatever. Well, you just graduated, of course. I know. We're silly girls, silly girls. And we went out. we went to one of those first covered bridges and the snow was really coming down and there was no one coming through the other side. So my girlfriend started going through the bridge. Well, this other car came zooming in and met us head on. And I don't remember the accident. I just remember waking up on a stretcher and I had no airbags back then. Yeah, no airbags. We didn't wear seatbelts either. I was going to say, probably no seatbelts. Backseat passenger side. Yeah. And so I had to get, I call it my scarlet letter. I had 16 stitches in my forehead and I was lucky, but my parents drove up and brought me home and I, they wanted to, you know, check it out. And I did have a concussion and my feet, I could not feel my feet and which was a new of course thing for me, I'm 21 years old. So my family doctor announced that I was fine, except my, I was wearing shoes that were too tight and that was cutting off my circulation in my feet. So being a 21 year old, I said, yahoo, I can go buy new shoes now. But over the years, you know, it started to manifest itself more and more. So fast forward, I was working in Manhattan and it was, 1986 and I was walking through Port Authority one day, the bus station in New York, to get home to my apartment. I was walking in my heels and all of a sudden I'm walking kind of crooked. So I look back and one of my shoes had fallen off 10 feet in back of me. I hadn't even felt it. So I said, I think it's not right. So I went to a soul practitioner, a neurologist, and unlike most patients, and they didn't really use MRIs back then, it was CAT scan and a spinal tap. And sometimes, and they quickly diagnosed me. And I did go into the city. My parents insisted going into Manhattan to get a second opinion.


Kathy Chester:
And- I'm surprised that they quickly diagnosed you, which is,


Cathy Chester:
It was very unusual. Yeah, second doctor neurologist in Manhattan, he was well regarded. And he also said, you have MS, but there'll probably be a cure in five years. So we all know, handout. Yeah. So that would be 1991, and none of you guys would have MS. So anyway, that was the beginning of when I was diagnosed. But Gary and I were dating.


Kathy Chester:
Wait, did you guys start dating pre-diagnosis? Yes.


Cathy Chester:
We started dating in 1985, the year before I was diagnosed.


Kathy Chester:
So while your feet were numb and all that. So Gary, what were you thinking?


Gary Chester:
I just wanted Kathy to be okay. And I mean, cutting sort of cutting to the chase, because we were engaged in 1987, married in 1988. I was very optimistic. I, I thought I didn't know about a cure in five years. That sounded right. Yeah, crazy. But I was very confident in science, biology, chemistry, that there would be a treatment. There was a treatment on the horizon that would be on soon because back then there was no MS specific medication. Say that again because I'm sure some younger folks are listening in and they have a choice of what 24, 25. There were no MS medications.


Kathy Chester:
And Gary, I think it's important to say that too, because a lot of our younger people that are diagnosed have parents also, or are listening. And the things I hear are, why did my mom not do the things you guys do now? Why did she not take better care? And I'm like, we didn't know anything. There wasn't anything. There was nobody telling us to do anything, but sit down and wait. Either there was going to be a cure or sit down and rest. That's all we were told.


Cathy Chester:
And the internet was in its infancy, there wasn't a social media. Yeah, so it was very isolated.


Gary Chester:
So they had three treatment options back then. Steroids, steroids, and steroids. Or if you were incredibly desperate and gullible, believe it or not, bee sting therapy, they thought. Yeah. So but but that, you know, I love Kathy, and I didn't want to make a decision based solely on the possible course of her MS. And again, I was optimistic. I'm not always an optimistic person by nature, but I was optimistic about this. And before we knew it, you know, certainly was a few years later, seven, seven years later, we had one. And we even talked about this. We figured once they break through and get one effective immunosuppressant product therapy, that will open the floodgates. So there were three for a while.


Cathy Chester:
Right.


Gary Chester:
There were three for a while. Which one did you start on Kathy?


Cathy Chester:
Well, you know, there was nothing else. So I started on the day after it was approved, because I had a great medical team, I was right on serum didn't work out for me too many side effects. The day that avidx came out, I got on that same thing. Then the day that axon came out, that I was on that. And that I stayed on that for 22 years. So Okay, yeah, yeah, a long time. But Yeah, no, we would have taken anything, anything. And I hate, for me, I hate steroids.


Kathy Chester:
So yeah, yeah, I did not do on those. And how did you feel your once she was on avenues or copaxone and was doing well on that? Did you both feel like okay, this is going okay, this isn't what we thought life is going to be. But how did you feel? Did you feel like were doing this, it's okay, life is working out okay, or were there relapses and scary things and did it still not feel like there's solid ground here?


Cathy Chester:
Well, I think we all know that the medications are not a cure and that we still can have exacerbations while we're on it. And that's the trajectory of our lives change the minute we get our diagnosis. And because MS is so unpredictable, you don't know where your path is going to lie. So even though I was on Copaxone, and even though it worked well for me for all these years, obviously, two years is a long time, I still had breakthroughs, I still had other symptoms that popped up in the meantime. But it was better than nothing. It was better than just relying on nothing.


Gary Chester:
What really saved us is Kathy became pregnant in 1992. At that time, the disease had manifested, had made itself known. She was driving with hand controls. And pregnancy is a natural immuno


Cathy Chester:
Suppressive.


Gary Chester:
Walking with a cane. Walking with a cane. So the pregnancy actually suppressed her immune system. Remarkable.


Kathy Chester:
It's a beautiful thing.


Cathy Chester:
If I could have done a cartwheel, I would. All the way.


Gary Chester:
Yeah. So my recollection, and Kathy's may differ a little, my recollection was after that, she was on a fairly steady course. And the Avonex and the later medications more or less have kept her on that course. It's exacerbated a little bit over the last year or two, which we sort of expected it would be. But that was the boost. That was really the suppressant boost that helped her and us tremendously.


Cathy Chester:
Yeah, stay pregnant, right? Yeah, right. If only. Gosh, it was great.


Kathy Chester:
How did you guys deal with or did you have the doctors telling you this is wrong? Don't do it. This is going to this going to set you back.


Cathy Chester:
You mean the pregnancy? Yeah. Well, by that time, there was more information available. The Internet was available. And don't forget that when I started that comprehensive care centers were just starting out. And by 1991, 92, there were all over worldwide. So there was a lot more information and there were, I was getting pregnant. There was one doctor that my medical team knew of that was talking about pregnancy and MS. No one else was. I drove an hour and a half to Northern New York state to see her. And she was saying that, you know, there's nothing, wrong with pregnancy and MS. But that said, they were also saying that the chances of children of people with MS is much lower than it is now. We know that there's many children and teenagers that are having those pediatric timeouts. So no, they were in my corner. The problem was I had two miscarriages and that kind of threw my whole system off. But the third was a charm. And our 31-year-old son is the proof of that, so.


Kathy Chester:
Yeah, that's beautiful. I love that. That's very beautiful, yeah. So for our viewers, I love, I listened to your TED Talk. What was it like to do a TED Talk?


Cathy Chester:
Well, I have to be honest, it wasn't the TED Talk that you see. It was, at the time I was working for the Consortium of MS Centers, which I've had a relationship in New Jersey for years. for years since I was diagnosed, the nurse practitioner there was my first nurse. And then she became the CEO for CMSC and IOMSN. So they were doing a program for the first time to put these TED-like talks, they called them. And it was a whole program of different people, doctors, nurses, patients. talking about, you know, MS. And so we went to Washington, D.C., me and Gary and our son Jordan, and we did two separate talks. Mine I wrote, and then us, we kind of just winged it, which was kind of fun in a way. Yeah. And I'll tell you, it was like doing a TED Talk. First of all, I was so nervous, but... You wouldn't have known it, Cathy, you know, it was beautiful. Well, the information we provided is still being seen around the world, and it's not living on YouTube, but it was important. It was kind of like, what would I have done then from what I know now? And I would say, trust your gut, because that's something that young people don't necessarily do. And that's what I based it on. But it was fun and I thought it went really well.


Kathy Chester:
But thanks for asking. I just, I loved it. I couldn't, I was like, gosh, that's so relevant still. You know, everything you said is so relevant. And then you were interviewed with Katie Couric. So what was that like?


Cathy Chester:
So that was kind of a surprise. It was, I think it was Disability Pride Month. And I wrote something on Instagram because she's so active on there. She reached out to me one day privately and said, you know, I really like what you said, I'm really interested in helping to create awareness about this idea. Would you be interested in being interviewed for, you know, she has a wake up call, they call it. Yeah. So her daily newsletter, which is chock full of great information, and I recommend everybody subscribe to it. So I didn't actually talk to her, but I did have some back and forth, you know, PM wise with her. And it was lovely. And I was so proud to be, have been seen by her and been asked by her. Yeah. So that was really exciting because once you meet a Kirk, you know, it elevates the conversation. because she's so out there and I love how she was so interested in MS and living with MS and what could she do to promote that.


Kathy Chester:
So thank you very much, Katie Couric, wherever you are. We are so excited about our new program. It is not about disrupting the status quo. It is about empowering you to lead a life filled with strength, resilience, and joy. Join us on this exciting journey because disruption begins with you. Ready to make a positive change? Let's disrupt a mess together. I can't wait to see you. How have you guys kept the passion going in your marriage? Share, give us some tips.


Cathy Chester:
Well, I think Gary and I have been really fortunate. It's really a blessing. And because when you're married, I mean, I was 29 and Gary was what, 30, 31 when we got married. I think people that get married younger, you really have to know each other, but you don't know how you're both going to evolve as you get older. You know, sometimes the woman changes quicker than or evolves more than the man or vice versa. And you don't know where you could end up. Luckily for us, we were always so like-minded in most things. And we always said from the start that communication, open communication is everything, no matter how difficult it can be or how, you know, sometimes when you're talking about MS, it can be, it's just like a laundry list of issues that you have to deal with. And do you have to keep telling your husband, I'm tired, I don't feel good, I got a pain, I gotta go to the bathroom, oops. But we've been lucky that we are there to listen to each other. And that's really a key component to keeping a marriage happy. And I just think that luck has something to do with that, bringing two people together. And I think that we're just grateful that we have each other. And, you know, he comes with me to every doctor's appointment with my neurologist, because number one, we know it's helpful to have an advocate. But number two, when you're the patient, you know, you're not always hearing everything the doctor is saying. And number three, you know, with cognition issues, cognitive issues, here's my memory, you know, he's sitting right next to me. So these are, yeah, so that really keeps the marriage happy.


Gary Chester:
We were fortunate to be the products of outstanding, successful marriages.


Kathy Chester:
Very important.


Gary Chester:
Yeah. We saw the communication and the affection between Kathy's folks, my folks. And luckily, you know, I really love Kathy's parents. and vice versa, if you don't mind.


Cathy Chester:
We were really blessed in that way. They were each married 65 years, our dads passed away, but they were always, they were just a great example for us.


Gary Chester:
And I would say the other, Kathy touched on it, but another reason is we fundamentally not only love, but appreciate each other as a person, our traits, our values, We, our interests don't always align. We share our interests. Some of them we both, I've learned things from Kathy and Kathy's learned things from me. Other things like, gee, I can't think of any sports. Okay. Uh, our first date was at a New York Mets game and my half serious crack is yeah, it was false advertising. That was the last time Kathy watched a sporting event.


Cathy Chester:
You cut that one short. I asked him out. That's what he's not saying.


Kathy Chester:
I asked him out. I didn't know that.


Cathy Chester:
And I could only afford the nosebleed section to a MET game. Oh, yeah.


Gary Chester:
I think that I don't want to speak for other people. Sometimes, you know, you can't have a checklist.


Kathy Chester:
Right.


Gary Chester:
OK, I like A, B, C, D and E. And if so and so doesn't like A, B, C, D and E, then it's not a match. Well, maybe that works for some people, but you might be overlooking someone really, really nice in the more important areas. But we have enough of those, you know, we might have A, B, and D, we don't need C. You know, we both love art.


Kathy Chester:
Yeah, it's such a good thing to say for our younger people you know who are looking for all of the checkboxes and I'm like, if you find that let me know because I don't think that exists actually. Right, right. Yeah, it's so interesting that, um, that you share that. Cause I do agree with that wholeheartedly that there needs to be a mutual respect. And I've read a lot of things that you've put in through the years, Kathy, like, you know, we've done so much together and times that you said he needs some space and where you've gone with your son to go do something. And you just needed that time. I think there's a balance between that really seeing each other. when each other needs some time we don't always see that like we talked about getting out of our ms stuff and just seeing things that those needs and i i think that you both do a beautiful job of that oh thanks thanks i think love is about not just thinking about yourself but thinking about the other person first and then you just you know what would make him happy he seems tense well maybe it's to be away from me for a little while there's nothing wrong with that it's totally understandable ms is a monster in many ways yeah i think that's so good that you said that because i i've noticed that i have my airpod on and i'm notice i'm i'm just talking to myself about you know what hurts or that and i'm and i'll say to him you know what i'm gonna go upstairs for a little bit and i'm just gonna listen to music And I said, no, I really am because I'm complaining and you need a rest for me. And he's like, I'm OK. I'm like, no, I I'm going to take a break because you need it. Even if you don't know, I'm just complaining. So I'm going to give you 10 minutes away from me.


Cathy Chester:
Let's be honest, men have a little bit of a harder time expressing their true emotions. So we have to pull it out of them and we see what's best for them. And we sometimes do as well. So you said to your husband, yeah, I have to go upstairs. I completely understand that.


Kathy Chester:
Yeah. I just saw myself like, wow, I've been complaining nonstop. Like, I need a break. You need a break from me. So how would you say that you've kept the respect and stuff, but the romance in the marriage that we see sometimes when we are each other's caregiver that can leave? Is it like a special date night or how do you keep that going? We want to get to the fat part, Kathy and Gary. We want to get to the sexy part now.


Cathy Chester:
I don't know, we're kind of flopping around at 65, 66.


Kathy Chester:
Oh, come on, give us some hope. Let's go.


Cathy Chester:
We want some hope. For me, as a woman, I find that when things are simpler, it's more romantic to me. When things are really just the most, the tiniest act, of just holding your hand, you know, or a kiss on the lips, a kiss on whatever it is, the tiny, smaller things are what resonates more with me. I can't speak, Gary. But we do take daily walks now that we move down south. There are these beautiful greenways that are immersed in nature. Getting him away from his computer and me being away from my computer.


Gary Chester:
Holding hands on the wall.


Cathy Chester:
Right. And really just talking about things. We're getting into listening to the birds. And we have an app that identifies which birds.


Kathy Chester:
I have that. Merlin, the Merlin.


Cathy Chester:
Yes.


Kathy Chester:
My kids were like, you are turning into grandma. I'm like, what?


Cathy Chester:
I know. I've heard that before.


Kathy Chester:
It keeps you close.


Gary Chester:
We hug a lot.


Cathy Chester:
Yeah, we hug all the time. Oh, I love that. I know this isn't sexy enough for you.


Kathy Chester:
No, I honestly heard that I'd done the podcast on intimacy and MS. And I loved that as we age, there's more holding and there's more intimacy. And I love that because there's not so much pressure and it becomes you see the beauty in different things. and just being together. And like you said, holding hands and the things that I think you've worked for all those years. That's a beautiful thing.


Gary Chester:
Kathy, I'm sorry, but we can't go any further. If this is going to be on YouTube, they're going to bleep it out.


Kathy Chester:
No, I know. Are you kidding? Sometimes I have guests like I'm like, oh, this is for sure going to be bleeped out. But somehow my editor knows the way around it. So somehow it doesn't. I'm like, oh, boy. So no, this is rated G. This will be a G one.


Cathy Chester:
Also, I was thinking not just but but our interests are the same. So we became members of a local art museum. And just spending the day with Gary, we stroll through the exhibits and it just reignites how much we love each other and how much we really love being together and sharing these joys because who knew that we would be living down here and who knew that we would be doing this, but here we are. Let's celebrate those good moments because those are the ones that might be fleeting at a certain point when the MS or anything else as you age adds up. These are beautiful, magical moments that you want to hold on to.


Kathy Chester:
I love that. What are some of the things that you're looking forward to in this next couple of years? Any vacations you have planned for this year?


Gary Chester:
Nothing spectacular. I mean, we have Kathy's mom is 93, lives in New Jersey. My mom's 93, lives in Florida. So that in and of itself, that's four trips a year, more or less.


Cathy Chester:
Yeah.


Gary Chester:
only a year and a half in North Carolina. So we're going to go out to Western North Carolina, Blue Ridge Mountains.


Kathy Chester:
Beautiful area. Yeah. Beautiful area. It's such a beautiful area. Really beautiful.


Gary Chester:
I mean, down the road, we hope to fly, you know, elsewhere. I don't know if we'll get to Europe again. We went several times when we were younger.


Cathy Chester:
I'd love to go back. Yeah.


Kathy Chester:
And we've not been there. That's a, that's on our bucket list. Yeah.


Gary Chester:
We keep reminding each other that we're not that far from Bermuda. And we've both been there. That's spectacular.


Cathy Chester:
Yeah. So we talk about it. And it's funny even just talking about it and looking and reading a lot about it, about the trips that we want to take. I mean, I always wanted to go to the Netherlands. I haven't been there yet. So we're focusing on that. Because again, the art there is plentiful. Sure. So we'll see. We'll see what life brings us.


Kathy Chester:
When it comes to traveling, do you feel like you have it down as far as what you need to have packed, what you need to ask?


Cathy Chester:
Well, we definitely pack a whole lot less than we ever did. A lot less than we ever did.


Kathy Chester:
I'm not there yet, Kathy.


Cathy Chester:
Yeah, it's it makes life easier, especially when you only bring a carry on with you.


Kathy Chester:
That's so I did it, but it almost exploded. I was like, OK, I'm not quite there yet. I got the carry on, but they all looked at me like this might explode on the on the plane. I'm like, I hope not. It didn't.


Gary Chester:
But I would say I would I would import this important part. I firmly believe I think Kathy agrees. Personally, I don't have the patience in general for long flights, but if you have MS, I just, if you can't get there direct nonstop, don't go. Because even if things go smoothly, too much can go wrong. Delays, lost luggage, you don't need the aggravation. So that's, I firmly believe.


Cathy Chester:
you know, in an area like in New Jersey, New York, right, somewhere in the world, not i'm not used to this you know right we're doing that on our own yeah yeah i did that last year on my own and and it was it was very terrifying and i thought okay that's the last time that i had that many connections because i just couldn't keep up with it and then missing one i was like okay that's that's it done with that right and and and just the recovery time of for your ms wise if you do have all those connections and and no you stand by and look It just isn't worth it for me. It takes away from your vacation time. So luckily, our area is opening up more direct flights too. I just did power, so that's good.


Kathy Chester:
Gary, what is the thing that you appreciate or love the most in Kathy? Boy.


Gary Chester:
Wow.


Kathy Chester:
I know I didn't even write that one down.


Gary Chester:
That's a tough one because there's just so many qualities. I have to narrow it down. I appreciate the inner person, the inner beauty that Kathy has, her attitude that life is rich, take advantage, and that she wants to do what she can to help people. The backdrop on that briefly is when Kathy was first diagnosed, we went to an MS support group and it was a total downer. It wasn't support, it was a gripe session. And, you know, right then it was just obvious that Kathy is different, is a special person in that regard. And she really wants to help people. That's why she started the blog. So for those reasons, that's the answer to your question.


Kathy Chester:
That's beautiful. You made me cry. I love that. That's beautiful. All right, Kathy, your turn.


Cathy Chester:
Oh, same question? Oh, I should have been thinking about it. I think because he always had something that I did not and he had self-confidence. And that is not something that I necessarily had or have. And so when I saw how he would speak what's on his mind and not pussyfoot around with words and was definite in, you know, I'm doing this or this is what I believe. That was like an aha moment for me. And I realized that I should learn how to adopt that. And I should learn because life is short and it's fleeting and you don't necessarily, you're not necessarily promised the next day. So why not be like that? So I loved that in Gary and I know that his parents were the same way. I used to watch them too. I think that's a great, characteristic of anybody when they can feel such self confidence in a world that's often chaotic and unpredictable. So I was drawn to that right away. Yeah. That's beautiful.


Kathy Chester:
What a complete honor to be able to interview you both and to meet you both. I mean, it really is. You can definitely tell the love and support that you give to each other that you have through the years because you definitely bring out the best in each other.


Gary Chester:
Thank you, Kathy. It's been a pleasure to share our journey with you and to speak with you today.


Kathy Chester:
Last question I have for you is if you had one thing to say to a newly diagnosed, what would you want to leave saying?


Cathy Chester:
The thing is what I've always said is that to trust your instinct to be your guide, because if you have a medical team that's telling you you can't do this or is telling you you shouldn't take this med, you know, you need a team that's going to be your partner. And that goes with with complementary medicine too. something sounds spammy, it probably is. So listen to yourself. You've got it in there. Everybody is born with that. Trust your instinct to be your guide and you'll do a great job.


Kathy Chester:
I love it. Gary, anything?


Gary Chester:
Keep the faith. I don't know if there's going to be a cure at any time soon, but the technology is improving. There's a lot of hope on the horizon and have faith in your you know, your doctors, your healthcare team, but also educate yourself, be armed to ask good questions.


Cathy Chester:
And write them down.


Gary Chester:
Make sure they are spending the time with you and not rushing you out the door. If they're rushing you out the door, find someone else.


Kathy Chester:
Yes. Right. Thank you for being on Move It or Lose It. It was such an honor to have you both.


Cathy Chester:
Thank you for carrying my name around.


Kathy Chester:
Absolutely. Absolutely. I love it. Well, thank you so much for joining us today on Move It or Lose It Podcast, where you can, again, find us wherever you like your podcasts, whether it's Apple, Spotify, and join us on that. And we can't wait to see you again. We're gonna have a lot of exciting guests and working together. And as always, you'll hear us say at the end of every podcast, we are stronger together. So let's do it. Let's become stronger together. Have a great day.