I’m going to gripe about the same thing each time I watch a football game. Jennifer knows this. She just smiles and lets me gripe. Usually she chimes in to acknowledge she understands why I’m cursing the current stupid running back, wide receiver or kick returner. “Straight ahead!” Jennifer repeats as though she’s my pigskin…… Continue Reading
Catch the Digmanns in the news
Category Archives: Motivation
Mind if we play through?
I enjoy that even with the challenges Jennifer and I face in living with MS, every day life is everyday life. The effects of these challenges – including everything from her inability to walk to my constantly numb hands and feet – merely are par for our courses of this disease. It’s as though we…… Continue Reading
How we roll
I don’t think we want to have MS today. We’re too busy. Oh sure, my hands burn with numbness, and I’m sure Jennifer has her own issues. Going to bed at 11 p.m. and getting up at 3:30 in the morning will have a negative impact on even the healthiest of people. But don’t tell…… Continue Reading
Shaken, not stirred
My, how things change when you’re battling a chronic illness that literally and figuratively is inside your head. I went to Central Michigan University’s indoor track today and ran. For a couple laps. I ran three. Walked three. Ran four. Walked three. Ran four. Walked two. Nineteen laps total. Nine times around the track equals…… Continue Reading
Forget the glass. Look for the silver!
To some people the glass is half empty. To others it’s half full. Then there are others who have the drive to say, “This isn’t the drink that I ordered,” and send the proverbial glass back for a new one. Which person are you? I’ve always considered myself an optimist who finds the best in…… Continue Reading
Help 'Challenge MS'
Less than two weeks ago, we learned about a group of local people preparing to undertake the unthinkable to fight Multiple Sclerosis. They are going to ride their bikes from Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, to Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, in an ambitious endeavor to raise awareness and $20,000 to help fight MS. We, along with our…… Continue Reading
I've been thinking…
I spent a large part of my summer thinking and learning about disability. Sounds silly right? After all, I shouldn’t need to learn about disability since I live it—having relied on a wheelchair for the last ten years, but now I see disability differently. I better understand the societal, financial, and political realities of having…… Continue Reading
Understanding Jennifer’s perspectives
The other day I belted out a line from an obscure Kiss song featured on an album (that’s right, album) released nearly three decades ago. Without skipping a beat, Jennifer followed my lead and piped in with the song’s next line. Yeah, of an obscure Kiss song that I listened to with my friends growing…… Continue Reading
MS be damned
I never saw the concrete coming, but it came quite quickly. Right up to my right eye as my head slammed into the sidewalk. Again. I fell when I was out running last week. I think my left leg, true to its traditionally sporadic toe-drag form, clipped a sidewalk crack about two miles into my…… Continue Reading
Be a champion everyday
I need you to do something for me: Stop reading this for three seconds and think about what you consider the best victory in sports history. …………………. …………………. …………………. OK. Welcome back. What’d you come up with? Perhaps it’s the Miracle on Ice when the amateur American hockey team upset the highly favored Russian team…… Continue Reading