“突然，我走不动了。”

Fortune brought Jessica Cummings and Andrew Eibling together at OUWB, 他们都希望成为一名医生，但都没有预料到他们将面临的独特而充满挑战的旅程.

独特之处在于，他们都没有想到在进入医学院的几周内就爱上另一个人.

之所以具有挑战性，是因为他们都没有想到杰西卡会患上一种罕见而痛苦的疾病，迫使这对夫妇在全国各地旅行治疗，并从医学院休学一年.

独特之处在于，OUWB社区会在精神上和经济上给予支持.

之所以具有挑战性，是因为他们将学到有关医疗保健的课程——这些课程是无法从书本或讲座中学到的.

The kind of lessons Jessica hopes others can take away from her story.

“I was apprehensive about sharing my story because it’s so personal, 让自己背负耻辱是很困难的,杰西卡说。. “但我想让人们意识到一种罕见疾病，以及罕见疾病患者的经历.”

“I also want to break the stigma around chronic pain,” she adds. “因为我不懒. 我不只是想要止痛药. I want nothing more than to leave this behind me forever.”

“关于维生素D的超级自命不凡”

杰西卡和安德鲁在2021年开始他们在OUWB的医学院之旅时并不认识彼此.

Andrew came from Colorado, where he earned an undergraduate from Colorado State University.

杰西卡在底特律长大. She earned an undergraduate degree from University of Michigan.

杰西卡的父母都是物理治疗师，他们在剑桥大学物理治疗项目共用的解剖实验室见面. That’s also where Jessica and Andrew ended up being lab partners.

到2021年11月，他们开始约会.

“我喜欢她的幽默感，”安德鲁说. “当你的朋友想在周五下午出去玩的时候，你可以说‘我只是想和这个人出去玩，因为他们很有趣’，这真是太棒了。.’”

安德鲁还说他“从第一天起就喜欢她的战斗.”

“她总是为那些被认为是落魄的人而战，那些人不一定能为自己发声,他说.

杰西卡也认为他们“相处得很好”，他们可以在最平凡的任务中找到快乐.

“Another thing I really liked about Andrew was his positivity,杰西卡说。. “医学院很辛苦，压力很大, 但他总是有这样一种感觉，他真的很幸运能够来到这里，学习这些信息，这是如此的酷.”

这对夫妇还喜欢户外活动. Andrew calls them “super pretentious about vitamin D,” referencing a shared love for the sun.

但是在一次长跑之后, 杰西卡突然觉得有些不对劲, 似乎不知从哪里冒出来的.

“我只是害怕而已。”

杰西卡一生都是长跑运动员，“这一点在上学期间也不会改变。.”

One day, 然而 — in early 2022 — she didn’t have a choice.

“We just took the cardio final and I ran 17 miles in training, 我只是觉得有点不舒服，不知道为什么,她说。.

Nothing out of the ordinary had occurred — she didn’t fall, 奇怪地踩任何东西, 在扩展, 骨折, 等. She simply had an inexplicable “light throb” around her left foot.

“I decided to take time off from running and with rest, it continued to worsen,她说。.

The affected region got to a point of being so sensitive, 杰西卡说, that touching it with a feather “would feel like a blowtorch” against her skin.

“I didn’t know it was possible to experience that much pain,杰西卡说。.

The affected area also would become extremely cold and turn a dark, deep red, almost purple.

“I started having trouble walking and suddenly, I couldn’t walk,她说。.

In the beginning, answers were non-existent — and that made things worse.

“我只是害怕，”杰西卡说. “我不知道发生了什么. 没有人，甚至医生，能告诉我发生了什么.”

Andrew couldn’t feel Jessica’s physical pain, of course, but he hurt, too.

“I cannot describe the pain a person feels when a loved one is in pain,他说. “Whether it’s emotional or physical…it’s just really spooky, and made me feel an immense sense of gravity about the situation.”

“我不知道我还能不能走路。”

Shortly after the couple finished their first year at OUWB, it was a podiatrist that finally diagnosed Jessica with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), which is also called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS).

It’s a condition that is rare, and not very well understood. 这不是遗传的. It’s believed to be the result of a dysfunction in the central or peripheral nervous system. 简而言之, 这种不正常的功能导致对疼痛信号的过度反应，神经系统无法关闭.

“我只记得在那次约会中，我感到很震惊，因为那不是一句‘你脚踝骨折了’之类的话,’”杰西卡说。.

The doctor told Jessica that treatment for CRPS could take years.

“I was hyperventilating and almost passed out,她说。. “我不知道我还能不能走路.”

在事后看来, 杰西卡说，她感到幸运的是，她的CRPS在症状出现不到两个月的时间内被诊断出来，而CRPS患者一般需要9个月的时间.

仍然, 诊断出来的两周后，杰西卡和安德鲁计划作为OUWB小组的一员去欧洲参加学校的首次奥斯维辛学习之旅(大屠杀和医学项目的一部分)。.

During the June 2022 trip, Jessica used a knee scooter or crutches to get around Poland. 他们告诉别人她的脚骨折了.

“It was so hard for me to talk about it at that point,她说。. ”也, 我们在那里的整个时间里，身体上和精神上都承受着巨大的痛苦……这太难了.”

回到美国后.S.她开始了漫长的康复之路.

Though medications can be effective in treatment of CRPS, they didn’t work for Jessica. 其他治疗方法包括生物反馈, 运动图像, 镜治疗, 疼痛心理学, 神经阻滞.

根据杰西卡的说法，主要的治疗方法是物理治疗，但这是一个漫长而缓慢的过程.

"我要成为的那种医生"

Jessica and Andrew began their second year of medical school, but it was too challenging.

“I’d be sitting in class and a sock would feel like nails piercing into my foot,她说。. “人们都在谈论肾脏或其他什么，你只是试图慢慢呼吸，因为你太疼了，无法集中注意力. I had to come to terms with the fact that I couldn’t be in school yet.”

安德鲁也决定休假了.

他说:“这归结为优先级问题。. “你希望提前一年或两年完成学业吗?, 或者你珍惜你生命中的爱? If you put it that way, it’s a pretty clear distinction.”

“我不在乎住院医师项目或其他类似的事情，因为我们做出了正确的决定,他补充道.

For now, both are working as clinical research coordinators at University of Michigan.

That keeps them connected to health care, and affords the flexibility of working from home.

They travel often as the different specialists Jessica needs are located throughout the U.S.

他希望下一学年能回到OUWB, but its uncertain if Jessica will make enough progress in physical therapy by that time. 她说，目前情况正在“改善”.”

有一件事是肯定的, 然而, is that Jessica has an abundance of support that seems unwavering — starting with Andrew, 她现在的未婚夫.

杰西卡说，她“从来没有觉得他试图优先考虑我所面临的情况.”

“他只是坚定地站在那里，就像‘这绝对是最重要的，我不会再考虑这件事,’”杰西卡说。.

来自OUWB的“无价的支持感”

The OUWB community also stepped up to support Jessica and Andrew. Jessica Krone开始了一个 GoFundMe募款活动 对于这两个. 到目前为止，已经筹集了9000多美元.

克朗说，她开始筹款活动是因为杰西卡和安德鲁的情况让她无语，她发现自己经常想到他们的情况.

“杰西是一个年轻人, 活跃的, 和我一样的医学院学生, 所以，这种事情发生在像我这样的人身上的想法一直留在我的脑海里，激励我去找一些能给她的处境带来好处的事情,克朗说。. “他们是非凡的人，心胸宽广, and I was happy to do anything to help them through this challenging time.”

Monies raised will be used to cover costs associated with Jessica’s ongoing treatment.

这对夫妇对人们的反应感到感激和震惊.

她说:“在一个支持性的社区里，有很多力量驱使人们走向康复。. “安德鲁和我完全被震撼了……OUWB社区团结在我们周围，给了我们一份巨大的礼物，不仅仅是金钱上的礼物……还有无价的支持感。.”

这种支持正在帮助杰西卡在治疗中取得进展，这对夫妇兴奋地展望未来.

“我们仍然非常关注我的康复，因为我们还没有达到我们想要的水平，我们一直被告知我还可以从这里变得更好,杰西卡说。. “但我们也知道，我们总有一天会成为医生……无论是今年还是明年。, 这就是我们对未来的计划和梦想.”

当它真的发生时, 两者都指出了某种从创伤经历中治愈的启蒙，并将使他们成为更好的医生.

作为一名医生, you may only see a handful of rare diseases in your entire lifetime, 但那少数病人还有生命, 还有爱他们的人,安德鲁说。. “It’s shown me the importance of being observant and compassionate, and to respond in a timely manner…there have been doctors that have left us hanging for months.”

Jessica realizes that now, even more than ever, she wants to be a doctor. 除此之外, so she can bring awareness to how long it takes some patients to even get a diagnosis.  

“这次经历点燃了我的热情，让我成为一名富有同情心的医生，真正倾听病人的心声，拒绝放弃他们,她说。. “如果我听说在某个地方有一个医生真正了解患有罕见疾病的感觉，并且不会放弃我, 我就会在那里.”

“这就是我要成为的那种医生.”