Snowbird
Active member
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2004
- Messages
- 61
Hi Crystal!
I am sorry to hear about your dad. As everyone has mentioned, spend your time, money, and energies enjoying your dad and your family. Build more precious memories, lots of them.
What really helped me to make our days happier (and this is not a commercial), was purchasing Dr. Laura's book on the 'Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands', which is spiritual feeding of course. It came at just the right time, and I have since adopted my life to many of her theories. I have no regrets and no anger over the time that my husband and I "LIVED WITH ALS".
Yes, "LIVED", ...........that is the key!
I also researched possible causes of ALS in the hopes that the information might help future victims in preventing them from acquiring the disease. I did my research on this forum by asking other members what their life experiences had been. Some will remember when we all worked on this. It was a great discussion.
What we noticed were a few similarities, and to this day, I would put my life down saying that 'inhaled fumes' attribute to 90% of ALS.
Where I live, the stats indicate that the highest incidence of ALS is amongst farmers, second is the auto industry, and third is firefighters.
Well, quess what! My husband has farmed his entire life. (Lots of chemicals, sprays, aerial sprays, etc. etc.)
He also owned an auto and ag equipments dealership. Chemicals, you bet, including paint shop.
AND he was fire chief for many years. Three strikes against him.
All of those contrubute to countless opportunities for inhaled fumes. AND my father-in-law and brother-in-law also died at very young ages of cancer. They worked with my husband in the same industries.
All three of these men were private pilots, and fueled their own aircraft.
They also used diesel fuels and gasoline extensively.
We found on this site that there were a few ALS victims that were involved in aviation maintenance. Once again, fumes. I don't think that we had any commerical pilots, but I could be wrong.
There was also the soccer or football team in Italy in which half of the team acquired ALS. They found that the grounds were maticulously groomed and lots of chemicals were used on the greens. Lots of 'face plants' on the grass.
One of our equine vets told me that he lost 5 middle-aged large-animal veterinary colleagues to ALS.
You will find that the people on this site will be far more helpful to you than much of the other commerical research. As suggested, some of those have hidden agendas. However, the people on this site are actually LIVING WITH ALS. They welcome you and your family on this site, and they will help you with any of your questions.
If you can think of the wiring to your muscles being like an electrical cord, imagine that one or more of the interior wires gets damaged and the messages no longer reach the muscles. That is how our neuroligst explained ALS to us. With MS, the insulation becomes damaged, but not the wires themselves. That makes sense to me and helped us to understand the disease.
Keep asking your questions on this site, and see what others have experienced.
Above all, treat your dad like the king he is, and your mom like the queen she is. Try to enjoy your lives, and above all, look after yourselves. I didn't look after myself, and I paid the price. Now I am healthy again, but there isn't a day that goes by that my husband doesn't talk to me in one way or another. I am so grateful for his memories and his constant presence.
Best of luck, and we all love you.
Pat
I am sorry to hear about your dad. As everyone has mentioned, spend your time, money, and energies enjoying your dad and your family. Build more precious memories, lots of them.
What really helped me to make our days happier (and this is not a commercial), was purchasing Dr. Laura's book on the 'Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands', which is spiritual feeding of course. It came at just the right time, and I have since adopted my life to many of her theories. I have no regrets and no anger over the time that my husband and I "LIVED WITH ALS".
Yes, "LIVED", ...........that is the key!
I also researched possible causes of ALS in the hopes that the information might help future victims in preventing them from acquiring the disease. I did my research on this forum by asking other members what their life experiences had been. Some will remember when we all worked on this. It was a great discussion.
What we noticed were a few similarities, and to this day, I would put my life down saying that 'inhaled fumes' attribute to 90% of ALS.
Where I live, the stats indicate that the highest incidence of ALS is amongst farmers, second is the auto industry, and third is firefighters.
Well, quess what! My husband has farmed his entire life. (Lots of chemicals, sprays, aerial sprays, etc. etc.)
He also owned an auto and ag equipments dealership. Chemicals, you bet, including paint shop.
AND he was fire chief for many years. Three strikes against him.
All of those contrubute to countless opportunities for inhaled fumes. AND my father-in-law and brother-in-law also died at very young ages of cancer. They worked with my husband in the same industries.
All three of these men were private pilots, and fueled their own aircraft.
They also used diesel fuels and gasoline extensively.
We found on this site that there were a few ALS victims that were involved in aviation maintenance. Once again, fumes. I don't think that we had any commerical pilots, but I could be wrong.
There was also the soccer or football team in Italy in which half of the team acquired ALS. They found that the grounds were maticulously groomed and lots of chemicals were used on the greens. Lots of 'face plants' on the grass.
One of our equine vets told me that he lost 5 middle-aged large-animal veterinary colleagues to ALS.
You will find that the people on this site will be far more helpful to you than much of the other commerical research. As suggested, some of those have hidden agendas. However, the people on this site are actually LIVING WITH ALS. They welcome you and your family on this site, and they will help you with any of your questions.
If you can think of the wiring to your muscles being like an electrical cord, imagine that one or more of the interior wires gets damaged and the messages no longer reach the muscles. That is how our neuroligst explained ALS to us. With MS, the insulation becomes damaged, but not the wires themselves. That makes sense to me and helped us to understand the disease.
Keep asking your questions on this site, and see what others have experienced.
Above all, treat your dad like the king he is, and your mom like the queen she is. Try to enjoy your lives, and above all, look after yourselves. I didn't look after myself, and I paid the price. Now I am healthy again, but there isn't a day that goes by that my husband doesn't talk to me in one way or another. I am so grateful for his memories and his constant presence.
Best of luck, and we all love you.
Pat
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