Along with a diagnosis of ALS, comes a prognosis of 2 to 5 years. Talk about hard to swallow. This is not supposed to happen at the age of 40! To add insult to injury, there is no cure and nothing that can be done but manage the disease.
As my wife and I leave the Dr’s office, I can remember just being in a daze. It seemed so surreal. You have read in books and seen in movies when someone is told they have a terminal disease, but nothing prepares you to hear of your own mortality. How do you break it to your family, your friends and hardest still, your children?
Needless to say, with a heavy heart, we methodically began the task of breaking the news. Along with the many tears were many questions. We did our best to answer the few questions we had answers for, but honestly, there were a lot of I don’t knows.
After a few weeks of asking God why and hoping somehow that they got it wrong, the reality that this is not going away set in. Stress was really starting to take its toll and the uncertainty of how much longer I would live led me to buckle down and start making some decisions to start my new life with ALS.
Choices that I made in the early part of my life really started to materialize into great blessings for me. As a veteran, it is very fortunate that ALS is considered service connected disability. Veterans are twice as likely to be diagnosed with ALS with no answer why. On top of that, I decided that my time spent with my family was more important than working, so I had the opportunity to medically retire from my job with the postal service. I wish other pALS were able to do the same. It truly is saddening what this disease does beyond the physical affliction.
Once I settled in with a plan going forward, I decided that I would LIVE with ALS.
Your story is sad but inspiring by the courage you displayed in your pursuit for answers.
And you’re a wonderful writer.
Wishing you many years of great health.
Thank you for the kind words. I promise that I will have more happy and fun content in the future. lol. I just wanted to give a summary of how I got to this point. Please continue to follow along and by all means I am open to suggestions about what my audience may like to know.
YOU ARE SO RIGHT, Gill, about the choices we make in life. Military service, check.
Another choice, life insurance, for a big amount. We know that ALS will take one life–but we can work to ensure it doesn’t destroy the whole family, as well.
You are spot on. As a matter of fact , that will be a topic that I will be tackling soon. Stay tuned and thanks so much for the feedback.