Warrior: Veena Kinni AI: Multiple Sclerosis HSCT: Cleveland Clinic, 2021 Superpower: ability to know inner strength How fully do you embrace opportunities to enjoy life? How do you promote a positive mindset? As a trained physician, it was hard for Veena as she transitioned to being a patient after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in December of 2011. She began on a disease-modifying therapy that she paused in order to get pregnant, though soon after delivering her daughter, her symptoms flared. Between 2014 and 2020, Veena’s condition continued to deteriorate until 2020 when she visited a neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic who suggested HSCT and embraced the opportunity with an ‘ignorance is bliss’ mindset. While she believes that it halted the progression of her disease, and shows no active lesions on MRI, the procedure and recovery have been challenging for Veena, which she attributes to being in the secondary progressive phase of disease. Tune in to learn more about Veena’s experience, her transition to JC+ during treatment with disease modifying therapy, and why she agrees that pursuing HSCT sooner in the course of the experience with autoimmune disease to avoid lasting damage. Be sure to visit our website, HSCTWarriorsPodcast.org where you can find notes from today’s episode, submit ideas or feedback, or connect with HSCT Warriors, Inc. and schedule time to “Talk with a Warrior”, find the latest research and resources, or explore information about locations. Special thanks to musical genius Billy Alletzhauser for sharing his superpowers to produce the soundtrack, and to Jacob Kinch for engineering the audio to make this podcast possible. You can find us when you subscribe on SoundCloud, iTunes or wherever you find podcasts. It has been great to connect with Warriors worldwide, so please reach out if you’re interested in sharing your story. We would love to learn how the podcast has helped your journey with autoimmune disease so if you could take a moment, leave us a comment on instagram or share feedback on our website. We hope you’ll tune in next Wednesday for another episode, highlighting another HSCT Warrior. Until then, be a snowflake and embrace your superpowers. Be kind. Be well. _________________________________ Jen Stansbury Koenig and the producers disclaim medical influence and responsibility for any possible adverse effects from the use of information contained herein. If you think you have a medical problem, please contact a licensed physician. Resources: Center for Regnerative Biotherapeutics Vinna Kinni, MD Multiple Sclerosis Defeater (blog)