{"id":5137,"date":"2012-04-12T10:59:08","date_gmt":"2012-04-12T14:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=5137"},"modified":"2014-01-25T18:10:18","modified_gmt":"2014-01-25T23:10:18","slug":"alumna-battles-multiple-sclerosis-with-sweat-and-a-smile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=5137","title":{"rendered":"Alumna battles multiple sclerosis with sweat and a smile"},"content":{"rendered":"

You could say Alyza Szajna \u201999<\/strong> is the Lance Armstrong of TCNJ.<\/p>\n

Armstrong battled cancer and won the Tour de France seven times.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Alyza Szajna '99<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since her 2005 multiple sclerosis diagnosis, Szajna has participated each year in the \u201cMS150 City to Shore,\u201d a 150-mile bike ride from Woodcrest Station, NJ, to Ocean City, NJ.<\/p>\n

There is just one little difference between the two inspiring bicyclists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not like bike riding that much,\u201d admits Szajna. \u201cI never liked riding fast; I have always been nervous about falling.\u201d Luckily for her, that hasn\u2019t happened yet.<\/p>\n

Szajna\u2019s ability to keep racing is what makes her story so inspirational.<\/p>\n

MS is a chronic disease of the central nervous system that interrupts the flow of information between brain and body. At its most severe, the disease can lead to paralysis and loss of vision, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.<\/p>\n

Szjana\u2019s health concerns began in June 2005. She was at a friend\u2019s birthday party when she she realized she could not feel her feet being tickled. After undergoing several tests, she was diagnosed later that year.<\/p>\n

According to Michael Opacki \u201999<\/strong>, Szjana\u2019s friend since freshman orientation at the College, MS \u201cnever slowed Alyza down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn college, she was the same as she is now: fun-loving, intelligent, and driven,\u201d Opacki said. \u201cAlyza never let any symptoms affect her lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryan Haldeman, Szajna\u2019s boyfriend, said people who meet Szjana are surprised to learn she has MS.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one knows unless she tells them, and even then sometimes people are in disbelief,\u201d said Haldeman. \u201cAlyza’s determination to remain as healthy as possible and [her] being proactive in seeking a treatment has provided her with much better results than people diagnosed in the past. A lot of people wouldn’t have the discipline to keep up her exercise regiment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to her 150-mile bike rides, that regiment also included participating in a \u201cHops to Hops\u201d bike ride\/mud run in Lambertville, NJ, and Newtown Square, PA. Szajna said she trains for rides and runs \u201cby doing anything and everything except biking and running,\u201d which she said \u201cbore (her) to tears.\u201d She has twice completed the strenuous exercise DVD series \u201cP90X\u201d and \u201cInsanity,\u201d billed by its promoters as \u201cpossibly the hardest fitness program ever put on DVD.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy neurologist calls me an athlete,\u201d said Szanja. \u201cThere may be some things I can’t do, but there are many more things I can do that people my age can’t,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She has had to make some concessions to the illness, she said, including walking up and down stairs more slowly and giving up playing soccer. But with the help of medication and a healthy lifestyle, she keeps her symptoms at bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I started taking medication for the fatigue, I felt like I had the flu all the time, without the stuffy nose,\u201d said Szajna. \u201cThe limited sensation goes from my toes all the way to the middle of my calves. I can wiggle my toes and move my feet, but I have trouble feeling things with my skin. Picture trying to feel (or) do things while wearing 10 pairs of knee socks.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Szajna, one of the best ways other people can contribute to the MS cause is by learning more about the disease and \u201cunderstanding how symptoms and treatments vary from person to person.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has personally found that positive-thinking helps her deal with her diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve always been a positive person. For me, it is better to focus on the present and the future than the past. It’s also better to focus on what can be done instead of what can’t be done,\u201d said Szajna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alyza Szajna \u201999 hasn’t let her MS diagnosis slow her down one bit. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":5139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-corner","category-april-2012"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}