Welcome from

Central Michigan University’s Physical Therapy Student Organization is hosting the 2009 MS 5k Walk/Run on April 18, 2009. A 1 mile route will also be available.

All proceeds will go to the Multiple Sclerosis National Society - Michigan Chapter.

Today, new treatments and advances in research are given a new hope to people affected by the disease.  With your support, this new hope can become a reality for individuals across the nation!

http://www.geocities.com/mswalk2009/index.html

I will be there manning … oops, I mean womaning a mission table for the MS Society and Dan will be there running the race. I invite everyone to either run, walk or join me in cheering on the  runners!

March Madness in full swing, and so, talk of the Sweet 16, Final Four and Cinderella teams emerging through upsets such as No. 11 Dayton beating No. 6 West Virginia 68-60 reminds me of the Multiple Sclerosis lessons I learned on the Pine Avenue Elementary School basketball court.

For the first few months following my MS diagnosis more than nine years ago, I lived in fear and was very cautious about what and how much I did. After all, I was living with a chronic illness.

I had reluctantly strolled three blocks to the elementary school to shoot baskets. Every 10 steps or so I’d dribble the ball a couple times, which was enough for me to realize the MS-induced numbness in my hands had stripped any sort of “soft touch” I had with the basketball.

Next to the school, on the flat slab of concrete that seemed more like a really big patio than a basketball court, I experienced firsthand that my ball-handling skills weren’t that great and my jump shot was a little off the mark. I was undaunted by my lost dribbles and air balls because I knew my true personal test would come from the freethrow line.

Shooting freethrows is the telltale sign because it’s easy to track my accuracy - or lack thereof. I always shoot 10 shots for easy percentage conversion purposes.

So I stepped up to the line. Now, I have made it a rule that I never start counting until I make one shot. SWISH! one for one … BOINK! … one for two…. BOINK! … one for three … SWISH! … two for four …

That first day, I went four for 10 from the line. Forty percent. Hmmmmm. Thinking back to how I shot before my hands were all but asleep, I usually shot about 70 percent. My gosh. I had lost 30 percent accuracy. MS was getting the best of me, and I was fading fast. Next year, I thought, I’d be lucky to make two baskets.

But I wasn’t meant to be a freethrow god that day. Instead, it was on that day that I began to rebound, from the “glass is half empty” mentality that I had embraced the day I was diagnosed. I looked deeper and realized that I couldn’t blame the disease for my 30 percent decline. The real reason I missed six of 10 freethrows: I hadn’t shot baskets since nearly six months earlier. Of course I was going to be rusty. That’s how I am the first time out every spring. Plus, I remembered that I was never Michael Jordan to begin with.

I never attended Pine Avenue Elementary, but I learned on the school’s patio-like basketball court that I shouldn’t be so quick to blame MS for everything that isn’t going as well as it used to in my life. I’m not so naïve as to think that MS won’t adversely affect my life, but the even greater lesson I learned on the court that day was that I shouldn’t be so quick to give up on myself.

Two days later, I drained eight of 10 from the line. 

from 2000, a picture of strength: granny, my mom, me & aunt polly

happy St. Patrick’s Day and on this fun and festive day, we all are a little Irish. my Irish grandmother, my granny or grandma ruby as i called her, certainly believed we all were. she was a wonderful, generous, fun, stubborn and proud woman. i hope/know that i inherited some of those traits from her. 

the one trait i’m not certain i inherited from her but am certain we shared is multiple sclerosis. granny never had a definite ms diagnosis.however after giving birth to her third child, she was told that, “she probably had ms.” in her day, doctors didn’t have the m.r.i.  

i’ve always been told that after having her baby, she lost the use of her left side. poof … gone. she and her new son went home to 2 young daughters and she did the best she could. my aunt polly, her sister, helped care for granny and her children. 

then one day, poof … it came back. she regained the use of her left side. granny never understood the cause or reason why this happened. and even now, the mysterious illness still remains a mystery.

but she lived with ms. granny would occasionally have trouble with her balance, falling sometimes. her penmanship was inconsistent, sometimes neat and sometimes quite third grade. i make fun because mine is like that, too. but unlike those of us currently living with ms, granny had no interferons or iv steroids or help from the ms society. she had her family, her faith and pride. that was her life. multiple sclerosis could not and did not stop her. 

so when i get frustrated and upset by this darn disease, i take a deep breath and remember what my granny went through.  and realize, i am pretty lucky living with ms right now.

for my granny and for all of us living with or caring for someone with multiple sclerosis, i share this…

May the road rise up to meet you.

Again, have a Happy St Patrick’s Day!

as most of you know, i’m an admitted techno-peasant. i’m new at this and technology is tricky. i had lots and lots of questions! so i cautiously approached a fellow blogger for some tips starting our own site. he was most helpful and happily obliged, thanks patrick.

and then i got gutsy, “I hope you don’t mind but we listed your sight on ours and we’d be so very appreciative if you, after checking out and approving of our site, you would do the same…I hope that’s not too much to ask :-)” (see, when i’m all business i capitalize but on this blog we’re friends so, no capitalization. you understand, right?) well, again he obliged and i couldn’t be more excited.

again, a BIG thanks to patrick! his is a very uplifting, informative site. i encourage you to check his blogs out at:http://caregivinglyyours.blogspot.com

point of all of this being have patience. i’m a slow, index finger typer who is doing the best i can

So, Jennifer and I are sitting here still reeling from less than four hours sleep last night. Perhaps it’s a blues hangover or it’s just our age telling us that we no longer can stay out late and get to bed after 2 a.m.

Either way, we did something last night that we’ve been talking about ever since we started listening to the Juke Joint with “The Duke of Juke” Robert Barclay on CMU Public Radio: We finally saw Ann Arbor-based rockin’ blues man Laith Al-Saadi at The Gem Theater in St. Louis, Michigan.

We first heard Laith’s infectious groove, smooth vocals and powerful rock- and blues-driven guitar on the Juke Joint while we were stretching Jennifer’s legs one Sunday evening. His song “Turn It Around” from his debut album, “Long Time Coming,” was like nothing we had ever heard before. We bought the disc and we’ve been hooked ever since.

Laith is a favorite of the blues crowd who frequent The Gem Theater, so he usually appears there several times each year. But, because it was a smaller venue, we figured it wasn’t going to be handicapped accessible and didn’t take the time to investigate whether Jennifer could get into the theater with her powerchair.

Too bad we didn’t investigate sooner.

Our lucky day: We met Laith after his 4-hour set Saturday night at The Gem Theater.

For whatever reason–perhaps the sunny weather or hearing songs off Laith’s latest release, “In the Round,”–we went for broke. We were in the area and drove by The Gem Theater to make sure it had no steps to enter the downtown building. After seeing there was no step up into the theater, we called about tickets.

We went into this figuring The Gem would not have a suitable accessible bathroom and, when Jennifer needed to use the restroom we likely would have to leave early or use the accessible restroom in the nearby McDonalds.

It was our lucky day because The Gem restroom was first class. In fact, owner Minard Shattuck came up to us shortly after we arrived to let us know where the accessible restroom was located. Mindard and his wife, Jen, did everything they could to make this a comfortable and enjoyable experience for us (Thanks guys).

And it was a great thing that the bathroom was perfect for us to use. Laith tore it up singing and jamming with his drummer and bass player for nearly four hours. That’s right: FOUR HOURS! What an amazing show (Thanks guys). 

We’re already planning our next trip to The Gem Theater to enjoy another great blues show and have marked our calendar for the next time Laith will perform there. We encourage you to do the same!

I was lying on my side watching the ultrasound monitor show my heart beating. I started laughing as I thought to myself, “Wow! That’s my heart on that there Tee Vee!”

So, my heart is beating. That’s good, Doc.

So, my existing minor heart condition—mitral valve prolapse—is confirmed. That’s fine, Doc.

So, I have a slow heartbeat. That scares the hell outta me, Doc. What do you mean?

So, the normal range is 60 to 90 beats per minute and I checked in at 30 to 35. What can cause such a dreadful heartbeat, Doc? Tell it to me straight. I’ve been diagnosed with having MS. I can handle it. And my lovely wife, Jennifer, I know she’ll be strong enough for both of us. What did I do to deserve this?

So, yes I do exercise. I run about 40 minutes three or four days a week, Doc.

So, that explains, justifies and excuses my slow heartbeat, Doc. That’s, good, I guess.

Seems like much of my health care is a guessing game.

Recurring lightheadedness is what led me to the doctor today. Every morning when I squat down to help Jennifer put on her socks and shoes, I get a rush of blood to my head when I stand up. The rush has been hitting me harder lately to the point I’ve had to pause several seconds to get my bearings and avoid passing out. Turns out it has a lot of potential causes, including:

·      Mitral valve prolapse – I’ve had this relatively minor (at least for me) heart condition that flares up only when I’ve had too much caffeine

·      Improper diet ­– I’m a fully active person (40 minutes at least three times a week) but sans breakfast I eat the same foods as Jennifer, who stringently adheres to her Weight Watcher diet to lose weight

·      Multiple sclerosis – That darn chronic disease of the central nervous system I’ve lived with for nearly 10 years

Oftentimes people who have MS are quick to pinpoint the disease as the cause of every health concern. MS is powerful; I’ll give him that. But I’d hate to think he’d get the best of me by taking all the credit for an entirely treatable symptom or condition that I missed out on fixing simply because I erroneously chalked it up to MS.

What I appreciate about my family physician is that he is willing to pause, assess the situation and make an educated medical guess, or hypothesis, if you will.

So, we started with the heart. I have one more heart exam tomorrow in Midland, and as luck would have it, my regular six-month check-up with my neurologist also is tomorrow in Midland.

Is my lightheadedness caused by my heart or my MS? Maybe one. Maybe the other. Maybe both. Maybe neither.

But I have a qualified physician and neurologist on my side. And their educated guesses hypotheses are better than mine. 

a college photo of me before ms

yesterday i went to a reunion luncheon with some of my sorority sisters. it’s been 12 years since i have graduated from college and at least that many since i had seen most of them. during my college days, i was quite different than i am now. even my name was different. throughout college. i was known as “urick”, my maiden name. that was the price us jennifers paid for being born in the seventies when jennifer was such a popular name. we all went by our last names. there were five of us when i became a member of delta phi epsilon sorority. and we were silly, occasionally drunk college girls, so going by our last names kept us straight. until i graduated in the spring of ‘97, i was known mostly as urick, a name i wore with pride!

only six short months after i graduated from college, multiple sclerosis entered my life. and as awful and unkind as the disease has been, i will admit that my ms diagnosis was one of the best things to ever happen to me. no, seriously, it was!

november 14, 1997 was one of the worst days of my life. but on that day–my ms diagnosis day–i began to put my life in order. my order began with 2 sentences, commands really, from my neurologist. “stop drinking for a month and stop smoking … forever,” he told me. it seemed cocktails were not going to help me deal with my disease. and he thought, i didn’t need to smoke and potentially add cancer to my already full plate.

those were the first 2 steps i took in the right direction. i quit smoking and really, i’ve quit drinking. because when i walked, i didn’t need alcohol to make walking any more of a challenge. and even now that i don’t walk, i don’t need alcohol to challenge my ms compromised bladder.

multiple sclerosis was also forcing me to grow up, stand up for myself, become, as my friend diana puts it, “my own best advocate.” doctors could help me deal with this disease but i learned if i was educated about new treatments or medications, i could ask the right questions and engage in useful dialogue during necessary medical appointments. plus, doctors always called me jennifer, urick was just my last name .

also, i quickly was seeing that family and friends mattered to me the most. and i learned which ones of both were going to be there for the long haul. learning how to not focus only on me and my disease has taken a while but i hope i’ve learned it. and i hope i’m a better daughter, sister and friend because of it. again i, begrudgingly, have to credit my ms.

ms has also taught me or forced me to stop sweating the small stuff and  to find joy in the simple, little things, like how dan and i finally figured out how to help me sit on and get up from the couch.  and to be proud of small accomplishments because really they are not small. it is a big deal when i ride my arm bike for 11 minutes.

and it is a big deal that i’ve lost over 100 pounds since i was diagnosed. sure, i never hit the gym and it was my ms depression that made the first 60 pretty easy to lose. but without discipline, a supportive husband and weight watchers, this recent 55 lb. loss wouldn’t be possible. and really none of it would have happened without ms motivating me.

but hands down, the number one reason i’m thankful for my ms is because multiple sclerosis was what brought dan and me together at the “finding our buried treasure” program. and since our wedding day september 10, 2005, i’ve proudly been known as jennifer digmann.

p.s. what’s really cool is that one of my sisters didn’t even recognize me because i look “so skinny!” and i thank ms for that.

no, my very first blog will not be about cleaning up our cat cooper’s pee. it’s just that our bundle of joy, as we often call cooper, missing his litter box is one of those little daily annoyances of life that i miss. believe it or not, i miss being able to clean up cat pee!

i miss it because multiple sclerosis makes it easier for someone else to clean the mess up. after making a genuine offer to help clean the mess up, dan weighed his options: it was either me stooping over the box cursing frustratedly as i try to reach the mess or him calmly cleaning the mess up. he chose option 2. and while i don’t blame him, i just wish i could have done it. that is what he lives with as my husband as well as my caregiver, damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

first off, let me introduce myself, i’m jennifer digmann. i will be occasionally sharing my tales of my daily life with multiple sclerosis. i’ve been living with ms for 11 years, my ms is secondary progressive, i no longer walk (i use a wheelchair but long for functioning legs each and every day … but who among us in a chair doesn’t?). my writings or musings, if you will, will never be capitalized. i’m weak on my left side so i seldom use it and one typically uses his or her left hand to press the shift key to capitalize therefore, i don’t. yes, i realize that there are many types of voice activated typing programs on the market, but i am a soft speaker with a subtle lisp (apparently) who is easily frustrated so i’ll stick to my right hand index finger typing method, thank you. did i mention that i’m stubborn, too.  and that i have an amazing husband, dan, who is also dealing with his own case of this miserable disease.

i will try to write honestly.  none of us, whether you yourself have ms or you are the caregiver of someone living with this disease, needs a pollyanna version of life with multiple sclerosis. i like to be positive but i am trying to be real. however, i don’t want to be a whiner. oy…i just really want to clean up cat pee the way i used to.

Check out today’s Mount Pleasant Morning Sun for a story written by Dan on the front page of the Life section to kick off MS Awareness Week, which begins tomorrow.

Dan and Jennifer also gave a great presentation this morning at Immanuel Lutheran Church! See photos below. And stay tuned for upcoming talks.

well, not really “our first kiss” but as a married couple, this was it