Jeanne Sager | Democrat LISA SCHANTZ of Rock Hill has been living with MS for 11 years.

How to live with Multiple Sclerosis

By Jeanne Sager
MONTICELLO — There’s nothing about Lisa Schantz that screams “sick.”
Ironically, that’s what makes her one of the best spokespeople for the Multiple Sclerosis Society in Southern New York.
Because Schantz is sick – technically. Eleven years ago, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) when she began losing feeling in her foot.
Living in Little Neck at the time, the Rock Hill mom jokes that an MRI of the myelin sheath – the fatty substance that protects the nerves of the body’s central nervous system – looked like someone was eating a pastrami sandwich and allowing little bits to drip out across her spine.
Severely damaged, the myelin in her body can’t properly protect her nervous system, and the nerve impulses traveling from the brain to the spinal cord and back again are interrupted.
For five years, Schantz was able to keep going without medicine, even able to get pregnant and successfully carry daughter Samantha, the second of her two children.
The pregnancy was rough on her body, but she bounced back until six years ago, when she found that the affect on her bladder – and the resulting sleep deprivation – was too much to bear.
She’s been on medicine ever since.
But Schantz has what’s called “relapsing-remitting” multiple sclerosis. According to the MS Society, it’s the most common form, in which patients suffer “clearly defined attacks of worsening neurologic function.
“These attacks which are called relapses, flare-ups, or exacerbations – are followed by partial or complete recovery periods (remissions), during which no disease progression occurs.”
Schantz has good days. She has bad days. She’s given up her favorite foods in favor of a strict diet of mostly fruits, nuts, and veggies to reduce the risk to her body. Her weekly dose of medicine leaves her feeling like she’s battling the flu.
Then she’s up again and back at work as sales manager at Monticello Gaming and Raceway, hustling a bus of senior citizens in the doors and rushing back out to greet another crowd from Rockland County.
She’s Lucky Lisa on Sundays, wandering the gaming floor in a cocktail dress handing out prizes. She’s Lisa Rene on WVOS spinning tunes and chatting over the airwaves. She used to dress up as a clown and perform at parties, but the physicality of her comedy act has become too much for her body.
Yet, to look at her, Schantz has gracefully reached 40. She’s a mother to teenaged Brooke and 10-year-old Samantha and heavily involved in their lives.
She wants to keep going for her girls as much as anything, she said.
“I’m trying to empower myself,” Schantz said with a grin. “There are so many people who have it just so much worse.
“When I feel good, I try to do everything,” she continued.
The MS Society has chosen Schantz precisely because of that drive – and because of her vitality.
She’s long been a member, but people whose MS is in the earlier stages are often less likely to get involved and take a prominent role in the fight.
For Schantz, the reason to lay back in the early days was as much to remain “normal” as it was a lack of time to commit to the cause.
“I have no problem telling people, it’s not a secret,” she said. “But when I was first diagnosed, people I hadn’t talked to in years called me up like I was dying.
“I was like, I’m not dying, I’m going to be OK,” she continued. “When I was first diagnosed, I didn’t want to draw attention to myself.”
There was a lack of urgency, she recalled.
“We don’t get involved because we’re at the furthest end of the disease,” Schantz explained.
The good days still outnumber the bad for Schantz, but she’s chosen to step up to the plate simply because the MS Society asked and it was time.
She likes to laugh and make people laugh. She likes to talk, is paid to talk in her jobs at the Racino and the radio station.
Together the skills make her an asset to the organization, and it’s a way Schantz can give back, a way to be a role model for her daughters.
The girls have been helping to raise money for the upcoming MS Walk on Saturday, May 17, and Schantz is trying to drum up teams to walk to fight MS.
To get involved, people can call the MS Society at 914-694-1655.
Registration for the walk will begin at 9 a.m. at the Blue Horizon Diner in Monticello on May 17, and the walk will begin at 10 a.m.