Lara's Tale, Part One

I do not know if writing my story down will be of any help to me.  I doubt it will be of help to you but I need some way to purge myself of the crazy roller coaster of emotions I'm going through.  My therapist suggested I keep a log of feelings and issues as a way to help me cope with ALS.  I had tried to journal earlier but hated everything I wrote so I quit writing.

I was diagnosed with ALS in July 2015 by Dr. Goyle at Stanford.  At that time, she gave me a "possible ALS" diagnosis which was seconded by Dr. Catherine Loman-Hearth at UCSF.    Both doctors have since confirmed the diagnosis in the fall of 2015, as my physical condition is deteriorating.  

In the Spring of 2014, I was an active, fit and normal woman , 47  years old.  I was lucky enough to be living my personal retirement dream with my husband.  He was still working a ton of hours, traveling for work, and helping out on our property on the weekends.  We had managed to purchase a country property in CA wine country and were actively developing our vineyard and fixer-upper of a home.  We love the property.  It's got awesome views and a livable house and great dirt!  I also fell in love with the small town of Paso Robles and was busy every day.  I joined a local grape growers association, got chickens, got goats, cleared the planetable fields, and  planted 3 acres of wine grapes, painted the interior of my home, painted the exterior, and hosted friends from across the United States.  It was a blast.

While painting the exterior of the house I had big fall, and tweaked my right ankle.  I babied it for a couple of weeks and noticed that my gait had changed.  Now when I walked my right foot slapped down.  I headed to the Ortho Doctor, sure that I had torn something in the ankle that could be fixed.  Imagine my surprise when the Ortho looked at my gate, declared I had "drop foot" and had me walk up and down the hallways for all the doctors in the practice to watch! The group consensus was that I had a nerve compression which was causing the foot drop.  Since I had been on several long road trips I believed it was caused by sitting with my legs crossed.  They told me it would resolve on its own.  The doctor scheduled a follow up appointment for one month out which he told me to cancel, "when the condition resolved."  

One month later, I was back in the Ortho's office with the foot drop.  Then things got interesting.