On Wednesday, the country will celebrate its first ever Progressive MS Day - to honor people struggling with the debilitating disease.
An estimated 400-thousand people in the US struggle with multiple sclerosis. It’s a chronic disease of the nervous system that can cause everything from poor coordination to paralysis.
Jennifer Digmann is a Mount Pleasant local who suffers from MS.
“I was diagnosed right after I graduated from college and I was showing symptoms of numbness in my hands and in my feet.”
Jennifer was first diagnosed with MS in 1997.
“It’s a big smack in the face. Oh my gosh, I’m living with a progressive neurological illness. I was 23 years old and I had just graduated and I had my future mapped out and you get a big ahhhnt, roadblock.”
Jennifer said she became active in the MS community and met her now-husband Dan at an event in Frankenmuth in 2002. When they met Dan was already diagnosed with the disease.
“I met her and fell in love. Love at first sight for me. We got to be friends and one thing lead to another.”
Dan said there are a lot of stories about how MS can tear relationships apart.
“Here’s one where the MS brought us together and I think just two people willingly taking this on and saying ‘let’s do this and have a happy life.’ It’s not to make it sound like it’s been a cakewalk - every day you have challenges, but you play through it.”
There are four types of MS. Dan is diagnosed with the most common kind, relapsing-remitting, which has flare-ups over time.
Jennifer has secondary progressive MS, which has put her in a wheelchair. She said until just last year drug treatments mainly targeted Dan’s type of MS.
“So Dan had all these different drugs and I’m sitting here thinking what about me? What about me with secondary progressive MS? What am I going to take to slow down the progression of my disease? Well, there was nothing until 2017.”
Jennifer said the disease needs more attention because there is so much that isn’t known. Like why is mainly affects women
“I’m 67% more likely to be diagnosed with MS than Dan is, why is that? Why are people with MS more often living in cold weather states? That’s the information, that’s the data that needs to be collected.”
Beyond research, Dan said he and Jennifer have urged legislators to make changes to help people living with MS.
“What we’ve been pushing is a bill from Senator Gregory that’s a home modification credit.”
More than legislation or future medical research Jennifer said it’s important to gather the MS community together.
“Through the knowledge that there is a day meant for people with MS we should all reach out to each other so no one is alone in this battle.”
Legislators in Michigan planned to hold an MS Day at the capital but didn’t submit a resolution in time.