Ten Years!

On March 7, 2001 I received my initial diagnoses of ALS.  Since then, I have had a total of four neurologist’s opinions and each time I was hoping for a different outcome.  But alas, it was not to be.  For a physical reference I reread my posting from Five Years.  Interesting.  I could almost re-post that article regarding my health with a few exceptions.  I’m just stunned.  There is more weakness in the hips and shoulders, but I still have not lost function of anything in particular.  Jennifer might argue that my brain has atrophied and I would tend to agree!

It seems as though ALS attacked me and then lost interest and neglected to continue with much zeal.  I am very grateful for this.  And yet, it leaves me in this purgatory of life not really belonging to the normal functioning group and definitely not belonging to the normal progressing ALS population.  Because of this my mental state has not been as strong as what it was when I posted Five Years.

My involvement with ALS has taken me from local support groups to the national MDA,  ALS/TDI via the Tri State Trek and Northwestern Mutual Insurance.  In 2005 we established the Denver Chapter of Extra Hands for ALS and after the national organization faltered in 2008, our chapter has been energetically resurrected by the local ALS Association Rocky Mountain Chapter.

However, since 2008 I really haven’t been involved with ALS too much.  Jennifer’s dad, Bob got very ill with cancer complications from his lung transplant and passed away in May of 2009.  Jennifer’s mom, Bettie was diagnosed with lung cancer the following January and passed away in May of 2010.  We had also attended an unusual amount of funerals and our son literally wondered if we “knew everyone who dies.”  It was time to take a break.

Occasionally, I will attend a high school recruiting meeting for Extra Hands and ALSA.  I really enjoy this as it reminds me why we started Extra Hands here in Denver those many years back.  These students are amazing and really gives me faith that our youth can do anything they set their minds to.  In fact, we all can and they help solidify that for me.

Jennifer has been quite busy during the last year, taking personal and business development classes.  One of her new businesses is helping family caregivers in their journey.  She recently informed me that 8000 baby boomers a day will be turning 65.  So at some point we are all going to be faced with a caregiver situation.  Please visit her  website at www.caregiverpath.com.

So for the last two years now, I feel a bit like a bump on a log.  Just watching things go by and not harming anything.  But, I sense I lost my purpose again.  What a fickle beast it is.  I feel my best when I am helping people.  I guess over the last two years I felt that since my progression is so slow and I have difficulty relating to the normal progression of ALS that I have no right to speak about the difficulties of ALS any longer.  What could I say that would be a benefit of those that are dealing with ALS now?

Well, I am willing to give it a try anyway and wanted to use my ten year anniversary as a relaunch of this website with a new look and more information.  I will be posting more with audio and video tools and providing resources that I hope will help those with their ALS journey.  If some of the old postings have links that are not working, please bring them to my attention and I will do my best to remedy the situation.  I am open to feedback on what you want to see or know about.

I humbly ask you to subscribe to my postings by filling in your email in the pop up at the bottom of the page.  I had a good subscription list with the previous version of this site, but I have been unable to access it for quite some time for some reason.

There are quite a few of us with very slow progressions and hopefully that gives hope to those already diagnosed.  The doctors have statistics, but each case is individual.  Challenge yourself to be the most upbeat and positive you have ever been in your life.