Teri Garr
If you get a diagnosis, get on a therapy, keep a good attitude and keep your sense of humor.Collection: Humor
Take a step back, evaluate what is important, and enjoy life.Collection: Life
You have to find out what's right for you, so it's trial and error. You are going to be all right if you accept realistic goals for yourself.Collection: Wisdom
I refused David Letterman's proposal of marriage for obvious reasons, but thanks for asking.Collection: Marriage
I'm wondering if they haven't reported all the people with MS, because if all of the cases were reported, the government would have to step in and give more financial aid to us.Collection: Medical
I was in love with Michael Keaton. He was very funny.Collection: Funny
Speed bumps, I was thinking, you know, you're driving along, everything's OK, and then there's a speed bump to go, 'Slow down.' Go over it real slowly, and you hit the pedal, and you keep going, and I just thought it was kind of a nice metaphor for life.
Speaking out about multiple sclerosis to others who may be dealing with this disease is actually helpful to me as well as, I hope, to others. It builds community, helps bring awareness to MS, and strengthens the MS movement that will ultimately lead to the end of this disease.
I always say don't be scared. It's not that bad - there's always something worse - and there is definitely life after multiple sclerosis.
I recently saw the movie about Ray Charles, and there's a scene where he falls down and the mother doesn't help him. She says, I don't want anyone to treat you like a cripple. I've fallen down before, and Molly will say, get up and just go.
You have to lift your head up out of the mud and just do it.
I danced in a company of 'West Side Story' when I was very young. It was most of the original cast - Larry Kert, Chita Rivera - and Jerry Robbins directed. It was tough, a wonderful initiation for me.
Win or lose, star or not, you wait for your car with everyone else, and waiting for your car is a drag.
In addition to having a good partnership with a good doctor, you have to do some of the work yourself. Go online, read about it, and find out what you can tolerate.
My mother was a real tough cookie. She raised the three of us, and she worked at the same time.
I have an enormous fondness for delicious food. It's very comforting.
People ask me about my limp. I say, 'You know, I don't know how bad it is, because I don't watch - I don't watch myself.' I don't look at it. I don't.
When one woman found out I had multiple sclerosis, she said to me, 'My heart bleeds for you.' I said to her, 'Well, my heart bleeds for you, because you're an idiot.'
Usually, the extras have a different mentality. I had the mentality of an artist, because I was a 'ballet-rina.' But most extras are out to make a fast buck for nothing. They're 'atmosphere.'
I'm always like this with a new movie role. I always get super-defensive and make noises like a rooster, Maybe that's because I spent so much time as a chorus girl.
If you get your foot in the door doing one kind of part, that's the kind of role they call you for. I can't say I resent it - then I would resent my whole career.
When you hear the word 'disabled,' people immediately think about people who can't walk or talk or do everything that people take for granted. Now, I take nothing for granted. But I find the real disability is people who can't find joy in life and are bitter.
The whole MS stuff put the kibosh on my career. And I sort of let it go. I even have a friend who went to CBS and said, 'I want Teri Garr to be in this series,' and the head of the network said, 'Oh no, she's got MS.'
With this disease it is so easy to throw in the towel, and that is the worst thing we can do.
I was in an acting class taught by Eric Morris, and Jack Nicholson was in the class. He wrote the script for 'Head', so all of us in the class got little tiny parts in the movie.
Any movie I've ever made, the minute you walk on the set they tell you who's the person to buy it from.
I go to my physical therapist to keep fighting it and one of them told me if you don't use it, you lose it, but I know we're on television so I won't say what I would often say.
I've always been this insane. Isn't that interesting?
I have been off the motorcycles for about 20 years now, but that doesn't mean I can't still do it.
I plan to live to be 120!
I think there are a lot of myths about MS, and it may have affected my career.
I have worked enough and I am happy to be touring the country speaking about living with MS to give people inspiration and motivation to help themselves.
There are things that you can do today that, years ago, there was nothing. The community today needs to know that with MRI and the current medications the view is good.
You can be diagnosed and treated early. And there is hope for the future.
I take one of the interferon therapies, Rebif.
Oddly enough, MS has made my life so much better than it was before. I now appreciate what I have and I am not running around like a rat in a maze.
I have a disease, but I also have a lot of other things.
MS doesn't define who I am.
I understand how hard it is to talk to people about MS. You don't want pity or random advice.
You can keep it to yourself, but you could also call a support team like the team at MS LifeLines. They are there to support the MS community and give good advice.
I have heard all kinds of stories about telling employers about MS and I really don't know what the answer is. I am a private person, but I have found support by talking to fellow MSrs in the community.
There were symptoms that I saw, and though I went to many doctors and had many tests, no one diagnosed MS.
Seventy-five percent of MS sufferers are women.
My doctor said, for want of a better word, now that we've got medicines out here that can help, let's put you on one of them and say we're treating MS.
I think eventually they're going to find out that MS is like 10 different things. I have a neurological disease something like MS, and it's MS, so let's take medicine for it.
There's always going to be somebody worse off than me.
Someday they may cure MS, that idiot thing. It gets in there and they can't get it out.
I do Pilates a lot. I don't do a lot of cardiovascular stuff.
People aren't so interested in seeing movies about women's problems.
I've always had this American-pie face that would get work in commercials... I'd say things like, 'Hi, Marge, how's your laundry?' and 'Hi, I'm a real nice Georgia peach.' Sometimes this work is one step above being a cocktail waitress.