The beginning

Actually, I am here because I wanted to post a comment on another blog. I thought that I was registering to that and suddenly, here I am with a blog of my own.

I think, why not?

I have ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease. It seems that a terminal illness does give one pause. Pause to figure out where you are, where you have been and where you are going, and how fast you will get there. It is mostly a pretty bleak picture. I look around me at others with this disease and see them literlly withering into a prison where there mind and soul are unaffected and their bodies no longer function. They wait for the final failure of the their stricken bodies, the failure to breathe. I try to take heart with the blessings of the life that I have lived, the fact that I still have most of my functions. I have can no longer walk, but I can stand for short periods, my speech is nearing a point where folks cannot understand me even as they try to mouth the words I am speaking. I can still eat, but it is a battle with choking and the ever present fear of taking food or drink down to my lungs where pneumonia can take hold. None the less, my arms and hands remain strong although buttons, keys and writing is almost a thing of the past.

I did not know anything about this disease until I had a doctor tell me that I had it and the average life span was 3 to 5 years. Hell, I had been going from doctor to doctor as my balance worsened, falling became a frequent affair and slurring of words got worse. The was a three year journey to get a diagnosis. Where was I now?

As I said at the outset, this news pretty much shattered what was, up to then, a pretty comfortable and secure life.