Catherine Roosevelt at the recent Fourteenth Annual Gala of the Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis.
Catherine Roosevelt is a vibrant 30-year-old woman who is dedicated both to her career as the Advancement Director for a nonprofit organization serving girls living in poverty and to her numerous volunteer commitments. In a typical year, she travels an average of one weekend a month for work or volunteer service and spends a month every summer in Lake Placid, New York, co-directing a summer camp. Combined with a busy social life, her days and evenings can be stressful and tiring, but maintaining an active schedule validates a promise she made to herself six years ago, when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS): “I won’t let my disease define me.”
Ms. Roosevelt was a 24-year-old graduate student at the University of Michigan when, she recalls, “I woke up one morning and my whole left side was numb.” She soon learned that she had relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: “When you first get that diagnosis, it rocks your whole world,” she remembers. She moved to New York City a year and a half later, and now, with the support of Mount Sinai’s Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis, she lives a full life.
“At Mount Sinai, there is a whole team supporting me to pursue the life I want to lead,” says Ms. Roosevelt. “MS can be a scary disease, but at Mount Sinai, it’s not gloom and doom—it’s about empowering the patient. It is a place that is rooted in making things the best that they can possibly be.”
Stephen Krieger, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, oversees Ms. Roosevelt’s care. “Dr. Krieger has my best interests at heart, not just as a patient, but as a person,” says Ms. Roosevelt. “He knows about my family, my friends, and what I’m up to. He knows what I want to accomplish in my life, and the entire team supports me to get there. You don’t find that everywhere.”
Says Dr. Krieger: “I want every patient who comes to see me to walk out feeling more assured than they were before, no matter what is happening.” In Catherine’s case, this has meant changing her MS therapy twice, both to minimize side effects and to respond proactively to subtle changes on imaging scans that could indicate a less-than-optimal response to treatment. According to Dr. Krieger, “Ensuring that the right medication strategy is chosen for the right patient at the right time, and evaluating that dynamically with an individual’s lifestyle, is particularly important because no two people with MS are exactly the same.”
Today, Ms. Roosevelt is a member of the Center’s Patient Initiative Committee, a group of approximately 12 patients and staff that meets regularly to discuss ways to best support the Center and other patients.
“With MS, every day is an adventure,” says Ms. Roosevelt. “Waking up in the morning and not knowing what I’ll be capable of doing that day can be terrifying. But the Mount Sinai team changes the conversation and allows people to live a pretty darn normal life. I don’t know what the future holds, but right now, I can wear four-inch heels, and that is awesome.”