FUMS 107 - MS Advocate Jenna Green

FUMS: Giving Multiple Sclerosis The Finger

Jenna Green worked for 15 yrs in corporate marketing, when she realized that she had to leave for the sake of her mental health! So she began working freelance - but the hustle culture, combined with chronic pain she experienced following a car accident, led her to a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis in 2016.

On what should have been her first Tysabri infusion, she learned that her insurance wouldn't cover the treatment. This was Jenna's first experience of Step Therapy or Fail First practices - where, in order to control costs, insurance companies restrict coverage of expensive therapies unless patients have already failed treatment with a lower-cost alternative.

And we all know that a failed treatment for MS means more relapses, leading to more irreparable damage, increased disability, and worse outcomes!

Jenna is now a patient advocate, content creator, consultant, and public speaker. She has used her experience in marketing to help bring awareness, support, education, and community to those who live with invisible illnesses, chronic pain, and fatigue, primarily on Instagram @thejennagreen.

AND she's devoted to helping to change public policy via her volunteer work with the MS Society. GO JENNA!

Topics covered in this episode include:

• Jenna's life before her MS diagnosis, and her experience of Step Therapy or Fail First policies
• Her belief that privilege equates to responsibility
• The alternative therapies that Jenna uses alongside conventional medicine
• How Jenna became an MS advocate, and how this work makes her feel
• Information about Jenna's exciting patient resource about Public Speaking For Patient Advocates (coming soon)

Full show notes and resources at https://fumsnow.com/fums107/