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Combat Athlete Jodi Phillips’ Talks Fight with Multiple Sclerosis & Training BJJ

Combat Athlete Jodi Phillips’ Talks Fight with Multiple Sclerosis & Training BJJ

Jodi Phillips has been a life long athlete. All her life she played whatever sports were on hand including a 7 year experience doing muay thai, kickboxing, mma and jiu jitsu.

In 2018, after years of unexplained physical symptoms Jodi was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

Jodi Phillips recently got the chance to be interviewed and share her fight with eattrainlfit.net‘s black belt resident Sally Arsenault

Jodi recounted some of her early symptoms:

In March 2017 during jiu jitsu training and sparring at Wulfrun, I started to notice I couldn’t keep up and wasn’t recovering after training. I also felt like I couldn’t breathe. This started two years of hospital stays and surgeries due to complications from my kidneys. The last tournament I did in June 2017, I lost my first match and ended up in the hospital that night and for the next ten days.

They couldn’t figure out what was causing the fluid in my lungs or any of the complications so thankfully Dr. Williams, a neurologist was assigned to my case and thus started a lengthy process of tests – MRI’s , numerous blood tests, and finally a lumbar puncture which solidified the diagnosis of MS.

Multiple Sclerosis is a progressive, immune-mediated disorder. That means the system designed to keep your body healthy mistakenly attacks parts of your body that are vital to everyday function.

Each time you have a flare up the damage to the nerve attacked can be permanent in which case wherever that lesion ends up is the part of the body affected. This is what causes blindness in MS as the optic nerve is often attacked, this is also my biggest fear as it has already happened to me.

Jodi recounted to eattrainlift.net

And still Jodi is still training.

For two years since the first hospital stay (there have been nine altogether and six surgeries), I always tried to go back to a fundamental class and it would last a few weeks but then I would be sick and end up back in the hospital due to MS related complications with my kidneys.

Dehydration is dangerous for me because of my kidneys so I need to always keep as hydrated as possible. The problem, of course, is also lack of control of bladder as well because of MS. My kidney would develop infections and stones and cause blockages which would lead to hydronephrosis (swelling of kidney) which is probably one of the most painful things I have to endure. My kidney has gone through this numerous times and has been bruised – the danger is permanent damage in which it would not work anymore.

Jodi added:

The injection sites are painful, there are eight of them on my body and impossible not to get pressure on them rolling, but for all these issues I have learned to live daily with the side effects and to keep a positive attitude.

The most important thing with MS is to be physically fit, to eat a clean diet, and to keep active – not doing this is what can make you sicker. I can’t do MMA or spar anymore, which I really miss (I can and some people with MS still do combat sports, I have chosen not to), but jiu jitsu provides me that outlet to compete in a way I need to.

Jodi competed for the first time since her diagnosis at the Abahya Open in late April – she managed to win a silver medal!

Congratulations to Jodi for all of her hard work!

You can read more on Jodi Philips extraordinary fight with MS at  eattrainlfit.net