maryhahnward
Distinguished member
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2009
- Messages
- 445
- Reason
- CALS
- Diagnosis
- 06/2010
- Country
- US
- State
- NC
- City
- Wilmington
Last summer just about this time I posted on the forum that our son was deploying for tour number four. We are weeks from his homecoming and cannot wait. Sean was home during March for R&R but it just isn't the same as when they are home for good. While he was home he bought his dad a large flat screen, HD TV with all the bells and whistles because he knows how much his dad loves a good baseball game and is an avid news watcher. It was pretty special for both of them.
Since March Tom has declined some and has begun to use a cane. He has also lost an awful lot in his arms. The day after our anniversary in June the neuro told us he believes what he thought was brachial aymotrophic displysgia (spelling is probably wrong), a variant of ALS, is now ALS as all limbs are involved. Sean is not going to appreciate this decline at all even though as ALS goes it is slowly progressive at this point. He will not appreciate that just yet; he needs about three or four months to decompress from combat before he can hear such things.
We have Sean's truck in the driveway and his motorcycle in the garage. We will get the motorcycle up on the truck and my daughter will follow us to Ft Campbell in the car while I drive the truck. He will be boots on the ground in early August. Even though it will be a challenge we are all excited. Somehow being able to see our son come home, not once, twice or even three times but four times from combat surpasses all the sadness that we sometimes hold in our hearts from this godawful disease.
I read the posts on this forum every day these days and learn so much that I thought it would be nice to post an update. Last summer so many of you offered encouraging advice and thoughts on how to handle this deployment and my husband's ALS. It was all good and useful, thank you.
Since March Tom has declined some and has begun to use a cane. He has also lost an awful lot in his arms. The day after our anniversary in June the neuro told us he believes what he thought was brachial aymotrophic displysgia (spelling is probably wrong), a variant of ALS, is now ALS as all limbs are involved. Sean is not going to appreciate this decline at all even though as ALS goes it is slowly progressive at this point. He will not appreciate that just yet; he needs about three or four months to decompress from combat before he can hear such things.
We have Sean's truck in the driveway and his motorcycle in the garage. We will get the motorcycle up on the truck and my daughter will follow us to Ft Campbell in the car while I drive the truck. He will be boots on the ground in early August. Even though it will be a challenge we are all excited. Somehow being able to see our son come home, not once, twice or even three times but four times from combat surpasses all the sadness that we sometimes hold in our hearts from this godawful disease.
I read the posts on this forum every day these days and learn so much that I thought it would be nice to post an update. Last summer so many of you offered encouraging advice and thoughts on how to handle this deployment and my husband's ALS. It was all good and useful, thank you.
