Episode 122 Part One - From Athlete to Advocate: Brian Wallace's Journey with MS

Brian Wallace is a former Michigan football player, who shared his incredible journey with multiple sclerosis. His story is not just about sports; it's about resilience, determination, and the power of movement, especially for those of us living with MS.

In the first of a two-part interview, Brian talked about growing up in a loving household, playing various sports, particularly hockey and football. His high school years were marked by recruitment from prestigious colleges, and he ultimately chose to play for the University of Michigan, where he had the opportunity to learn from legendary coaches like Bo Schembechler and Gary Moeller.

As we discussed his diagnosis, Brian recounted the troubling symptoms he experienced leading up to it. After finally learning he had MS, instead of feeling defeated, he felt a sense of relief. Knowing what he was up against allowed him to take control of his health and future.

Throughout our conversation, we touched on the importance of movement and how it can serve as a form of medicine. Brian's journey exemplifies the idea that even when faced with limitations, there are always ways to adapt and keep moving. His story is a testament to the belief that we can redefine our capabilities and find new ways to thrive, regardless of the challenges we face.

Don't miss Part Two, coming tomorrow.

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:

Learn more about Disrupting MS Together

Connect with Brain Wallace on TikTok

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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. Hey, guys. Today, obviously, I'm in my Michigan gear, so I'm very excited for our Michigan man, Brian Wallace, who is an ex-Michigan player and alumni of Michigan University. Welcome, Brian. Hi.

Brian Wallace: How you doing, Cathy? Nice to meet you.

Kathy Chester: Thank you so much for being on Move It or Lose It.

Brian Wallace: Oh, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Kathy Chester: Absolutely. So we both share a big love for Michigan. And you've got an amazing story that I'm very excited for all of our MSers to hear because I think it is very inspirational in so many ways. But a lot for our MSers that have had it for years and a lot for our newly diagnosed to understand that there's a lot with this disease, but it is not a death sentence. So, Brian, tell our listeners what life was like for you before diagnosis, because you had a lot going on.

Brian Wallace: Yeah, I did. I got diagnosed when I was 27 years old. Before that, I had a great childhood. I grew up with two great parents, awesome brother. Me and him are still close to this day. Both of my parents have passed away. I played a lot of sports growing up. My mom and dad were very encouraging about trying different sports and different things. So I played baseball and I got into hockey when I was about five years old. Loved the sport. did very well at it. I wanted to play football but I was too fat. I mean I wasn't fat but I was just a big kid you know I was always bigger than every kid in my class and they had a weight limit back then like 120 pounds and I was probably like 140 and there's no way in the world I was going to be able to lose the weight to play. So I was never even able to play football. So I played hockey and really got into that sport and then I got into high school and the high school football coach saw how

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Brian Wallace: I'm like, no, I coach. I play hockey. He goes, no, you're gonna play football now. I'm like, alright. So, I went out on the football field and I I really liked it. I like to contact and all that and then my sophomore year, I started getting recruited. Um I was starting on a varsity at the high school and then my dad got sick and he passed away. I was 15 years old. Wow. Very very bad time in my life but I was still going through the recruiting process. So, okay.

Kathy Chester: The tough age to lose your dad.

Brian Wallace: Yeah, it was. It was terrible and I didn't handle it very well. You know, I I didn't want to handle it, you know, because. and I didn't want anybody and I was mad at the world and mad at my dad, but I had a lot of my release playing sports. You know, that's what I love to do and and instead of dealing with the death of my dad, I just go into a gym or, you know, I'll go out and play baseball or football in the streets with my So then I was getting recruited pretty heavy in my junior and senior year. I was going all over the country. Me and my mom would go up to New York, visit Syracuse, Boston College. I was getting recruited by Miami of Florida, Florida State, Penn State, all the big… What did that feel like? It was a surreal, amazing experience, especially for someone that's 16, 17 years old that really doesn't have a clue in life yet.

Kathy Chester: Yeah.

Brian Wallace: And you're getting wined and dined by every school in the country and it was a pretty amazing experience. And I ended up visiting Notre Dame.

Kathy Chester: I'm really glad you didn't go to Notre Dame.

Brian Wallace: Yeah. And, you know, as a kid growing up, I grew up in Ohio and I was a Buckeye fan, you know, because you kind of have to be in Ohio. Right. But I always loved Notre Dame. So I used to tell people when I was a little kid, you know, I'm going to play football at Notre Dame. It all just be like, yeah, right. So, yeah, that was a dream of mine. I went out there and visit there and I met Lou Holtz and I did. It just didn't it just didn't feel right.

Kathy Chester: Beautiful school.

Brian Wallace: It is a gorgeous campus, you know, and I didn't have a lot of luck with them when we played them. I went one and two against them, one and three against them. But anyway, so I visited Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana and Purdue, and Notre Dame, and I fell in love with both. But even before that, being an Ohio guy, I committed to Ohio State. That's back when Earl Bruce was coaching. And then when they fired Earl Bruce, that's kind of like when I like stepped back and said, all right, well, I don't know who's going to coach them. So I kind of decommitted, opened up my recruitment and then John Cooper got the job and I met him and then he came over my house and met me and my mom. By the end of the meeting, it was about a 45 minute meeting. My mom looked at me when he left and said, if you go to Ohio State, I'll never go watch you play. I said, I, well, I guess I'm not going to Ohio State. And then I, you know, when I was up in Ann Arbor, I met Bo and I fell in love with the guy. He was, he was amazing human being coach. And that was it. I, you know, I went to Michigan, I played there. For four years, my freshman year, yeah, I got redshirted. My sophomore year, I ended up getting hurt. I fractured two vertebrae in my back. So I missed most of my sophomore year. I came back my junior year and senior year and I played mostly special teams. My big claim to fame is my senior year. we were playing Minnesota and the guy that was in front of me, Rob, great guy. Me and him were roommates in college on travel days. So he was starter in front of me and he got dinged up in the game and he came out in the first end of the first quarter, second quarter. So I ended up playing like three quarters of that game, had a great game, made the victors club list, you know, scored out great. But that was my only game that I got significant playing time. And the kicker to that whole thing is my mom didn't travel to real far games. So it was it was at Minnesota at the Metrodome and it wasn't televised.

Kathy Chester: Oh, no.

Brian Wallace: Yeah. So my mom didn't even get to see me play on TV because ESPN was just starting out. So it wasn't huge yet. I mean, we had games that weren't even televised. So.

Kathy Chester: Yeah.

Brian Wallace: But yeah, so my one game that I actually did get to get to play a little bit, it wasn't even televised.

Kathy Chester: So that's it. I know my brother lives in St. Louis and he does a lot of traveling. So I'll be like his play by play. And so I'm like, OK, they're on this yard. They're here. They're here. And he'll be, you know, I'm in a house or doing something like that. He does a lot of AV and stuff like that. So I'm like, okay, I know you're in someone's house, whatever you're doing, but they're on this yard line. They're on this. Okay. Oh crap. Okay. There's now they're here. So I love doing that. We've been, I mean, every year I'm like, what do you want? He's like, what do you think? I'm like, all right, Michigan, Michigan. I'm thinking, what do you not have? So I can't imagine not having it televised. It would have been like so bad, but what a great experience to be able to play for Bo. Did you play for, for Mo too?

Brian Wallace: Yeah, I played for Bo for his last two years. And then he retired, but he was still really involved with the program. He had an office in the building and all that. So I still saw him all the time. But Gary Moeller took over and he was the guy that recruited me out of Ohio anyway. So I liked him to begin with. You know, he's the one that got me interested in Michigan. So he took over and I played for him for the last two years. Love that guy. Great, great, great guy.

Kathy Chester: Me too. He kind of got a bad rap. I didn't like that. I was like, wait a minute. He's a great guy.

Brian Wallace: You know, if it would have happened today, I don't think anything would have happened with it. But because the time period was, it was just a different era of football. Right. Yeah. I mean, he got it. He got, I think he got a short end of the deal on that one. For sure.

Kathy Chester: The Move It or Lose It podcast is proudly sponsored by Disrupting MS Together, designed to help you take control of your wellness while living with multiple sclerosis. Disrupting MS Together aims to increase mobility through functional movement. Coaches Kathy Chester and Mally Witt see to connect the mind, body, and spirit with guided, focused online workouts and coaching. You'll get targeted workouts sent directly to your email and Q&A sessions with licensed coaches, early access to podcast episodes with experts in the industry, group workout sessions through Zoom, and curated content that you won't find anywhere else. Early bird pricing is only available for the pilot program. So don't wait, check it out now. The program includes a tremendous amount of benefit from seasoned coaches who also live and thrive with multiple sclerosis. Learn more and take the leap today. Visit www.msdisrupted.com to learn more and snag your spot now while you can. Let's talk about diagnosis time. So you're diagnosed and what is going through your head? So what you were 27.

Brian Wallace:So actually, even before that, you know, being a former athlete, you know, quote unquote elite athlete playing at the University of Michigan, even before I got diagnosed, I was still very athletic. I actually got into triathlons and I was running. I was a big time runner. I'd go out and run every day, at least three to five miles every day. So I was training. I completed the National City Marathon. And then the following year, I was going to train for the Cleveland Marathon and do a 26 mile. And I'm like, you know, I'll try it, see what happens. I'm a big guy. But but so I was out training for that and I was running and I was probably at about an eight mile mark on one of my trains. And I just tripped. You know, I tripped and I fell. And I'm like, I'm like, man, that's you got to pick up your feet, man. That's why you're being so clumsy. And so I get up, dust myself off, and I go back into my run. And I finished my run with no problem. But then it just started to get gradually more and more tripping. And then a few months later, that's when my vision just started going all whacked out. I couldn't even see the color red, green, and yellow out of traffic light when I was driving. Then my vision went double, you know, and that's what that and I was scared to death. That's when it took them 10 months to diagnose me. But when they finally did, I was actually relieved, you know, because I was like sitting there in limbo for almost a year going, I just want to know what's wrong with me.

Kathy Chester: And that's a scary part. And I think a lot of people say that when the diagnosis is, is so iffy, and you don't know, at some point, it's like, I just need to know what it is. Yeah. And there's that relief. Okay, now, I know, I don't like it. But at least I know what I'm I know what I'm up against.

Brian Wallace: Yep, absolutely. I agree with you 100%. And then when I got diagnosed by my doctor, Dr. Joe Hanna, he diagnosed me and you know, I just kind of looked at him and I said, Okay, I go, you know, what now? You know, and he's, you know, I don't I didn't realize what MS even really was. You know, I never had anybody in my family that was ever diagnosed with it, so I never grew up around it. You know, you hear about it, but you always think worst case scenario with them. You think about people that are in a wheelchair. Right. I mean, it's just kind of like it with any other kind of disease or, or disability, you know, you think about somebody that has autism, right? Think about severe autism. I mean, there's people on the spectrum that are brilliant. My stepdaughter is on the autism spectrum, and she is going to be a pharmacist. You know, so just because you're diagnosed with something, it doesn't mean that there's not a label for it of what you're going to be.

Kathy Chester: A hundred percent.

Brian Wallace: I get I got diagnosed with MS. I looked at my doctor and I'm just like, you know, all right, now we know what it is. What do we got to do? Exactly. And he said, we got to get you on a drug. I'm like, all right, let's do it. And in being athletic and, you know, like in a run and workout and all that, I asked him, I'm like, you know, so what do I have to do? Do I have to stop working out and doing all that? And he said, no, not no. He said, but you'll know when to stop.

Kathy Chester: Yeah, interesting, because the back then doctors were saying no, no exercise.

Brian Wallace: Like I said, he was only 10 years older than me. So it wasn't like he was like a 50 year old doctor talking to a 26 year old kid. Yeah, you know, I mean, he was in his 30s just really starting out. So I think he was like, kind of like the new wave of MS doctors. And, you know, he told me, Brian, he goes, you can do whatever you want. He said, your body's going to tell you when you can't. Yeah. And I live my life like that. You know, I still was going to the gym. I was getting, you know, I wasn't running anymore. I couldn't do that. I had to give it up. But I was still going. I was getting on an elliptical for 30 minutes and going three and a half miles on an elliptical because I had the support with my hand, you know, and I was just killing my legs because I wanted my legs to stay strong.

Kathy Chester: Right. I'm at that point where you are now, where my legs are tripping. And so I didn't start running until after I was diagnosed. One of the things I was told by an older person that had MS, she said, try something you've never done before. Because oftentimes with MS, we look at the stuff that we could do and we continue to try and try and try. And it's depressing because we can't do it as well as we could. So try something you've never done. Now, I don't think she meant try running, but that's what I thought. You know, why not? So I did and I didn't tell anyone because back then, as you know, we didn't talk about it. So I didn't tell anyone I had a mess, but I just ran. you know, we would go out after and we went to grab, you know, some dinner after. They said, man, you trip a lot. And I said, yeah, I think I ought to say that I have multiple sclerosis and no one really knew. So after years, they were like, we need to like do like padding all around so that when you trip, we know you're safe. So I had to give up like the marathons, you know, that had to be like, I had to give that up. So now I just try to get a mile in.

Brian Wallace: That blows me away that you are running after diving.

Kathy Chester: I'm like, well, I'll try a triathlon, so.

Brian Wallace: That is an amazing, amazing accomplishment with this disease.

Kathy Chester: Well, that's why it's move it or lose it. Cause I just feel like, you know, not that hardcore anymore. You know, I'm not, but it's like, I always feel like it, whatever we don't move, we're losing. And I just think of my body. What am I? Okay. Losing and nothing. So even if I can't do the things and that's, what's so important to me with MS is maybe I can't do things the way I did, but there's a different way of moving some of those muscles. You know, I don't want that MS hug. I don't want that. Even now, you still stay active in the way that you can, which I think is remarkable. You got it in the beginning, you understood, and you understand today. You understand that movement is our medicine, and you still continue. Thank you so much for joining me for another episode of the Move It or Lose It podcast. It would mean the world to me if you subscribed and left a review. Remember, you can find me on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. New episodes of the Move It or Lose It podcast air every other Wednesday. If you have any suggestions for future guests or topics, please visit my website at www.msdisrupted.com. Until next time.