Hudson Valley Nurse With MS Comes Out Of Retirement At 72

TARRYTOWN, NY — Adrienne Simpson grew up in Harrison, raised her children in northern Westchester and spend 38 years working as a registered nurse at White Plains Hospital.

She retired when she was in her 60s but found retirement was not suiting her.

So when she heard about a job for a school nurse at a charter school in Yonkers, she sent in her resumé.

That was in August when she was 72, and she said she loves being back at work — even though it is a different set of responsibilities. And she loves the kids.

"I have no regrets," Simpson, 73, told Patch during a recent interview.

One detail is missing, however. The Tarrytown resident was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was 28 years old.

At the time she found out she had MS back in the late '70s, the only treatment was large doses of prednisone, a drug that she said was difficult to take.

Simpson said, besides tingling in her feet, fatigue was her biggest problem.

She went into remission, she said, but the disease began coming back in her late 40s.

All the while, Simpson held down a demanding job at White Plains Hospital. She was a discharge manager, someone who works with patients arranging care, but also is responsible for the financial health of the hospital.

It's doing "60 things for 10 people every minute," she said.

Simpson said when she reached her mid- to late-60s the job got harder.

"You just don't hit the ball out in the field like you used to," she said.

So she decided to retire.

Simpson said she still has fatigue, but her balance is much improved, thanks to working with Dr. Saud A. Sadiq, a board-certified neurologist at the Tisch MS Research Center of New York. That was after a bad fall, when she wasn't on medication.

The difference now is like night and day, she said.

"I saw physical therapy's value as a nurse," Simpson said, "but didn't believe they could fix my balance."

However, her balance really did improve.

"He was able to retrain my brain," Simpson said. "I haven't fallen in a long time. I can't believe the success."

For the past few years, she said she was feeling well, but hated retirement.

"I've been treated successfully and have been lucky," Simpson said, "and retirement, to me, was deadly."

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic and 20 months of being by herself.

Simpson said she wasn't looking for a job as a school nurse, but was sent information about an opening at the Charter School of Educational Excellence in Yonkers for someone to work three days a week.

"The post made me smile," she said, "and it was just down the river."

Away went her resumé, which Simpson forgot about sending — until she was on a road trip in Ohio and received a call from the school's human resources manager.

She started the new job last August.

As could be imagined, Simpson said the position deals with a lot of bandages, ice packs and sports-related injuries.

But, she said there are some more serious things to possibly deal with, such as adolescents and drug use or the possibility of a staff member having a heart attack.

Simpson said that she has been taking continuing education classes to help her prepare for the unexpected.

"I think that every day I'm grateful," she said, saying that it's not physically hard, making it possible given her age and diagnosis. "It can be very, very busy. But I love the kids."

With Monday being World MS Day, Simpson said it was a good time to bring more awareness to the disease.

She said the day helps people like herself come together and be happy that they are doing well.

Simpson said people such as her doctor are doing a lot of research into finding the cause of multiple sclerosis, because then they can work toward a cure.

She has encouraging words, though, for anyone facing the prospect of having multiple sclerosis. There is no reason to believe that someone newly diagnosed will necessarily be disabled, given all the treatments available today, she said.

Editor's Note: Adrienne Simpson revised several of her remarks in the updated version of this article.