Staff writer
The indoor pool at USD 408 Sports and Aquatic Center is part of the reason Jennifer Sawyer, 34, was drawn to town. Sawyer, her son Nile, 12, and her mother Nyla Sawyer moved about a month ago to Marion from Oxford.
Jennifer Sawyer suffers from multiple sclerosis and the soothing waters of a pool ease her aching joints and limbs.
Sawyer wanted to raise her son in a small town with and a school district that appealed to her. She grew up in a small Kansas town and wanted her son to have the same experience.
“I want him to have a normal childhood,” she said.
Sawyer has been selfless when it comes to Nile. Seven years ago, the left side of her body went numb. It was as if she had suffered a stroke at 27 years old. An MRI revealed plaques on her brain stem, halting blood flow to her brain. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
“It was absolutely the most terrifying thing — not for me, but I worried about my son,” Sawyer said. “I worried whether I would be able to take care of him.”
Nile was only 4 years old at the time. He had trouble understanding what was wrong. There were times when he wanted to play, to toss a ball around in the back yard. Sawyer would play with him for a while, but would quickly be worn out and have to go inside. He would plead with her to play a little longer.
Other times he would give Sawyer a hug and she would ask him not to squeeze because it put too much pressure on her back.
“It’s hard on him,” Sawyer said. “When I’m not functioning well, he worries.”
Sawyer experiences excruciating pain on a daily basis. She has trouble finding words and she will sometimes slur her speech. She lacks balance and is prone to falling. She experiences one or two flare-ups a year. A flare-up is an experience where she will lose the feeling in one side of her body.
After the last flare-up, Sawyer’s mother, Nyla, came to her aid. They decided to live together in Marion, Sawyer’s mother helping to take care of Sawyer and Nile.
Jennifer’s first ever flare-up occurred before she was officially diagnosed. One morning, she awoke to find her lower body paralyzed.
She went to the hospital, but showing no previous health concerns, the doctors thought the paralysis was caused by an allergic reaction. Jennifer is allergic to ink and they thought ink from dying a shirt may have gotten into her blood stream. They gave her steroids to combat the problem and she improved.
“That happens to be the same thing you use to treat MS,” she said.
Over the next few years, Jennifer was in pain and did not feel healthy. The pain was constant but she figured it was normal.
“You don’t feel well but you don’t know why you don’t feel well,” she said.
Jennifer receives injections to lessen the symptoms and sees a neurologist twice a year.
She is unable to hold a full-time job because of the stress of the disease. She used to work two jobs and go to school. She has degrees in accounting, art, and teaching.
She continues to paint and weave, displaying of her artistic talent and she works as a substitute teacher when she can.
“People look at me and they can’t see anything wrong,” Jennifer said. “They don’t know that I haven’t slept for two weeks because of the pain or that I have to think before I can make my left leg work.
“I feel blessed there’s people who have to endure much worse,” she said.
Sawyer has not given up hope for a lasting solution to MS. An Italian researcher, Paolo Zamboni, is working on radical procedures after his wife was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He has developed a technique to insert microscopic balloons in veins to increase blood flow.
Until the procedure becomes more mainstream, Sawyer will take advantage of the hospital and pool in the small town environment she wanted for Nile.
“I feel like there’s hope,” she said.