EVERETT — While skating in roller derby matches, Stephanie Colunga of the Jet City Rollergirls expects to take a few hits.
Some knock her to the ground. When they do, she gets back up and skates some more.
The hit that knocked her down during a Jan. 21 scrimmage against the Rat City Rollergirls, was just one more hit. After she got back up, Colunga, who goes by her derby name of Indy Pendant, kept on going.
“I didn’t think anything of it until the next morning when I woke up and my fingertips were numb,” she said. “I just assumed that maybe I jolted something in my neck and it would be fine in a couple of days, and the next day my fingers were even more numb.”
Colunga, who lives in Marysville, tried to ignore the problem but it continued to get worse. She couldn’t feel the texture or the temperature of things she touched.
Colunga, 31, visited her doctor, who told her she appeared to be healthy and wasn’t sure why she was experiencing numbness in her hands. He told her not to worry and scheduled an MRI for the following week.
The numbness spread.
“By that weekend my numbing had gone up my arms, down my chest and into my stomach,” Colunga said. “It was so weird and really scary. I felt good, I had energy. I just didn’t have feeling.”
She tried attending class at Everett Community College but the numbness spread to her legs. Colunga called her doctor in tears and went in for an emergency MRI.
Colunga thought she had a pinched nerve from playing derby until the next day when her doctor told her she had multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease of the central nervous system.
“I just broke down because what I remember MS to be is people who are in nursing homes and can’t move,” she said. “(The doctor) said it’s not that MS anymore and that we’ve come a long way and there are lot of drugs that are helping people stay active and stay walking and live a long life.”
Although the diagnosis she received Feb. 9 shocked her, Colunga decided to try to maintain a normal day-to-day routine of raising her three children, going to school to become a nurse and skating in derby matches. Visits to the doctor’s office caused her to miss some school and have to work hard to catch up in her studies. She experienced more symptoms of fatigue, overheating and confusing her words. Giving herself an injection every day was also suddenly part of her regular routine. It wasn’t fun or easy, but Colunga decided to stay positive.
When she told her teammates she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she told them how they could help.
“I told them that one way they could support me was by walking with me in the MS Walk and they were just like, ‘Yes, absolutely,’ and everybody that night signed up.”
The Indy Pendants will volunteer and walk during the 20th anniversary of Walk MS on Saturday at the Tulalip Amphitheatre, 10200 Quil Ceda Blvd. in Tulalip. The team of 51 is made up of Colunga’s teammates, friends and family members. So far, they have raised $4,150 and expect to reach their goal of $5,000, Colunga said.
Colunga and her teammates were planning to volunteer for Walk MS before she was diagnosed because they volunteered at last year’s Snohomish County walk and enjoyed being part of the event.
“I probably would have volunteered anyway but it definitely does mean something different now,” said her good friend and derby teammate, Joan Hartzell, who goes by the derby name Xe Cutioner. “I definitely know a lot more about (multiple sclerosis).”
Walk MS is an event that Reid Shockey, president of Shockey Brent Inc. in Everett, has been part of the past five years. He will participate in Walk MS on Sunday at Husky Stadium in Seattle. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 38 years ago. He was driving down the street one day, he said, when the colors of a traffic signal went from red, yellow and green, to all white.
“The treatments are getting better,” Shockey said. “We have the highest number of people with MS in the world in Washington and nobody’s really sure why there’s such a heavy cluster here.”
The MS Society’s goal is to raise $1.8 million in this year’s eight walks held throughout the state, Shockey said. At age 64, he is chairman of the community engagement committee of the National MS Society, Greater Northwest Chapter. The Washington chapter combined with the Alaska chapter this year to form the Greater Northwest Chapter.
“We’re trying to make sure that even though the chapter is located in Seattle that we’re developing programs that meet the needs of people all the way from Anchorage to Tacoma to Vancouver,” Shockey said. “There’s a lot of services the MS Society provides but we want to make sure that it’s custom tailored to the needs of each of the communities.”
Colunga said the best part of getting ready for Walk MS has been helping others learn about multiple sclerosis.
“I plan on doing this for the rest of my life and I hope that my 51 friends will do this for the rest of their lives because it’s one day out of the year and it’s for such a great cause,” she said.
Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491, adaybert@heraldnet.com.
Walk for a cause
Registration for Walk MS in Snohomish County begins at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the Tulalip Amphitheatre, 10200 Quil Ceda Blvd., Tulalip. The 3-mile walk begins at 9:30 a.m.
More info: tinyurl.com/ tulalipwalk.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
