{"id":155263,"date":"2019-10-10T08:39:32","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T12:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=155263"},"modified":"2019-10-11T08:31:28","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T12:31:28","slug":"diagnosis-set-athlete-new-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/10\/diagnosis-set-athlete-new-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Diagnosis Set This Athlete On a New Course"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not the reaction Dr. Matthew Hall<\/a> thought he\u2019d get when he was preparing to tell his patient she had a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord.<\/p>\n

Marisa Boasa, then a 40-year-old competitive athlete who had been having problems with balance and falls, was frustrated by the ongoing mystery of her limitations. At age 35, she was told to stop running, which was an unacceptable answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept falling. I was falling at work, I was falling when I was attempting to run,\u201d Boasa says. \u201cSomeone told me I needed to go see Dr. Hall, this could be compartment syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next would come a multidisciplinary workup at the UConn Health Storrs Center office by Hall, a primary care sports medicine physician, Dr. Cory Edgar<\/a>, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist, and Dr. Anthony Alessi<\/a>, a sports neurologist. They ruled out exertional compartment syndrome, which is when pressure builds up in the lower legs, leading to pain and limitations with exercise. They subsequently ruled out pinched nerves in the knee or back.<\/p>\n

The next test was an MRI of the brain, which revealed a pattern classically associated with multiple sclerosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reviewed the MRI with her, and the response was the completely opposite of what I would expect,\u201d Hall says. \u201cIt was really this feeling of like, \u2018Thank you, you gave me a diagnosis, and a feeling of validation.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

For Boasa, finally, it was an answer, and from there began a new course of action.<\/p>\n

\"Marisa
Marisa Boasa, who runs with ankle-foot orthosis braces (AFOs), isn’t letting multiple sclerosis keep her from continuing as a competitive athlete. (Photo provided by Marisa Boasa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt put me on the track to getting the medicine I need,\u201d Boasa says. \u201cGetting me on the proper treatment is helping me function today.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s made it a life mission not only to stay active and moving, but to inspire others with mobility challenges to do the same. Not long after her summer 2018 diagnosis, Boasa started the YouTube channel Fight for Mobility<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has really taken it, understands her diagnosis, understands the treatment, and embraced it, from the standpoint that she can use it as a platform to help other people,\u201d says Alessi, who runs UConn\u2019s NeuroSport<\/a> program. \u201cAthletes have a different mentality towards life, and we all know that. I have given athletes diagnoses of brain tumors or Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease, and their only question is, \u2018How do I get back?\u2019 What we\u2019ve found in sports neurology, because of the new treatments for MS \u2013 and other conditions like migraine and epilepsy \u2013 we have people with MS competing at the highest levels of sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Marisa
Marisa Boasa with the UConn sports medicine physicians on her care team, from left: Dr. Matthew Hall, Dr. Cory Edgar, and Dr. Anthony Alessi. (Photo by Chris DeFrancesco)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alessi says when he was a neurology resident in the mid-80s, about one-third of MS patients were severely impaired to the point they couldn\u2019t walk. Today he says the rate of severe impairment is closer to 10 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much of this is patient-related,\u201d Alessi says. \u201cThe patient is one of the most important parts of the care team. She\u2019s gone on and hopefully will write a book some day. That\u2019s the kind of thing that can really encourage future patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to give me a lot of credit, but they gave me the guide,\u201d Boasa says. \u201cIf the patient doesn\u2019t choose to do something with that after, that\u2019s on the patient. This is a conversation I have with other patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she competes, Boasa uses ankle-foot orthosis braces (AFOs) and trekking poles to help her maintain her balance, and she wears a cooling vest to counteract the heat sensitivity associated with MS.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s been on medication, she\u2019s been through a ton to get her where she is now,\u201d Edgar says. \u201cWe were just able to listen to her, find out what the diagnosis is, and get her on the right path. She\u2019s honestly done all of it on her own.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Marisa
Marisa Boasa (second from left) crosses the finish line at the UConn Health 5k June 2, 2019, when she was the division winner in the Challenged Athlete category. (Photo by Jonathan DeNicholas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After UConn Health doctors diagnosed Marisa Boasa with MS, she made it her mission to stay active and inspire others with mobility challenges to do the same. This weekend, she’s competing in the Hartford Marathon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":155265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1715,2231,179,2225],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-155263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-impact","category-health-well-being","category-uconn-health","category-uconn-storrs"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 14:48:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155263"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155329,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155263\/revisions\/155329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/155265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155263"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=155263"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=155263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}