Diagnosis: Secondary Progressive MS
Age at onset: 29

These days, “hope” is an overused word. It’s been tossed around in political elections and used by advertising campaigns to sell products. It’s grown so fashionable it’s almost lost its meaning.

But for Michelle Brovitz, hope means everything.

Michelle’s condition isn’t the result of a sudden accident. There wasn’t a sports injury or a car crash, no single moment where everything changed. It was a slow and steady process that began 15 years ago at grad school in Maryland.

Michelle woke up one morning with an odd numbness in her index finger. She tried to rub it awake but the sensation was still there a week later. Unsure of the cause, her doctor told her to come back the following week. By then, the numbness had moved into Michelle’s shoulder.

She eventually went to a neurologist who couldn’t diagnose the problem unless there was a relapse. A year later, still with no definitive diagnosis, half of Michelle’s face was numb and she was slurring her words. It was finally clear she had multiple sclerosis. “I thought I was going to die,” Michelle remembers. “I cried and cried … but then I dealt with it. That’s how I operate: I might have a pity party but it’s short and I move on and I do what has to be done. I fell apart and then I pulled it together.”

After being diagnosed, Michelle’s symptoms retreated temporarily. For five years, “you would never know there was anything wrong with me,” she says. She graduated and began her career as a pathologist’s assistant, and went on medication. But there is no cure for MS. It can be slowed but not stopped. Michelle’s steady decline began with a cane and eventually led to a walker. She lost dexterity in her hands and was forced to give up the career she loved.

Equally frustrating was the reaction of her doctors. Fed up with being told that nothing could be done, Michelle had had enough. “I said to myself ‘Are you kidding me? I’m supposed to sit here and keep getting worse until I’m a lump on the couch?’ I couldn’t accept that. My sister works at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and told me about the stuff they’re doing there that offers some hope. Doctors at Johns Hopkins hooked me up with Restorative Therapies and my whole world opened wide. The first time they put me on the RT300 cycle we talked for an hour and it was so weird—all of a sudden, I’d ridden for an hour and didn’t even notice. Until then, I could barely exercise for seven minutes. And when I woke up the next day I could walk better. It wasn’t a miracle, it wasn’t like I was doing cartwheels or anything—I just felt better.”

Michelle was determined to raise the money to buy a cycle of her own. “I was going to get it no matter what. I was willing to sell my house if I had to. I’d had 15 years of decline. That’s a long time. This was the first thing that worked.”

Paying for the cycle was another challenge. To raise the money, Michelle worked with GiveForward, an organization that allows individuals to set up personal fundraising websites. “Normally, people aren’t going to just write you a check, but if you have an official website it makes a difference. It’s been amazing to me. Not in a million years did I think I would raise enough. But I got my cycle.” 

After owning the RT300 for only a week, “I felt like it was helping but I didn’t think anyone could see it yet. But at the gym, a woman I’d never spoken to in my life—she didn’t know anything about me, nothing about the bike—she came up and told me it looked like I was walking better. I flipped out! And then a couple friends said it seemed like I was doing better too. I didn’t think it was noticeable, but apparently it is.”

Even after such a short amount of time, Michelle is finding that the cycle helps with mobility, balance and leg cramping. Her morning cramps are almost gone since she began riding three times a week.

“I have hope back. The RT300 is helping! It’s working for me. And even if it helps no more than it has so far, I’ll take that because I feel better. I’ve always been hopeful, but I’d been crushed down for so long and I didn’t even realize it. I didn’t realize I’d lost hope until I got it back.”