Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/115080
Over time, the Digmanns have developed a sort of agreement that involves an immense level of patience with each other. He waits while she laboriously cuts through her entrees when they go out to eat. She reminds him to pick his feet up when he goes for a run ��� his fingers and feet have gone numb, thanks to MS. And despite all this, there are always breakdowns with the plan. Their wheelchair accessible van breaks and needs repairs, leaving Jennifer housebound for days and adding stress to Dan���s already crunched schedule. Dan slips and falls while he runs due to the numbness, gets patched up in the E.R., and keeps running, anyway. It worries Jennifer, but she understands that it���s his way of outmaneuvering MS, and you have to do these things to persevere. Jennifer will fall once in a while, too ��� that���s inevitable. Once she fell in the bathroom at 22 centralight spring ���13 CMU, and the Digmanns were at the mercy of any college students who could be pressed into helping her get up. Oddly enough, those are times that have opened Jennifer���s heart. ���I think people are kinder than we give them credit for,��� Jennifer says. ���It���s unfortunate that it took getting a chronic illness to realize that people are kind, to see what really mattered to me. I wanted to be successful ��� I think I am successful, but I have a different measure of success now.��� The finish line Last Christmas, Jennifer anxiously eyed the lumpy present with her name attached under the tree, hoping her husband would remember ��� hoping it would be the only gift she really wanted. ���I think every semester, I have a nervous breakdown. I���ll say, ���I can���t do it ��� this is too hard.��� The hardest part of it is not letting it win. MS can affect you cognitively. I may not have been an athlete, but I���ve always been smart, and I don���t want to let this muscle atrophy,��� she says, pointing to her brain. Every college student goes through a few trials in order to cross the finish line ��� allnighters, bad test scores, a few moments of serious metaphysical reflection. Jennifer has dealt with all of those ��� and many more. She smiles in spite of the setbacks. Her buried treasure gives her a reason to smile every day. And now, she has an official CMU alumni sweatshirt ��� her prized gift. Can���t wear it until May. But that sweatshirt �����it makes all those trials worth it. The Digmanns blog about life with MS on their website, danandjenniferdigmann.com.