Pearl
Active member
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2006
- Messages
- 77
- Reason
- Friend was DX
- Country
- US
- State
- Georgia
- City
- Atlanta
Hello. My friend and her husband found out about his diagnosis (bulbar onset ALS) last August. Six months later, my dear friend is not doing very well as far as coping with this tragedy. She takes care of her husband very well - tending to his needs. But she is still so devastated. Uncontrollable sobs mixed in with day to day living. How long can a person take such heavy grief ? They have sought out grief counseling, but the ALS association contact still hasn't gotten back to them. (not sure what's up with that).
I don't even know why I'm posting this here except to vent - it is so very hard to watch. I think he (the patient) is doing better than she is. He has even told me he doesn't know how to help her with her grief (and she has told me, that she has heard that the worst thing a person can do is to expect the one who is suffering to ease the caregiver's pain.) I don't know that that is true. Ideal, maybe, but we live in an imperfect world and aren't these experiences so that everyone in them can learn?
I don't even know why I'm posting this here except to vent - it is so very hard to watch. I think he (the patient) is doing better than she is. He has even told me he doesn't know how to help her with her grief (and she has told me, that she has heard that the worst thing a person can do is to expect the one who is suffering to ease the caregiver's pain.) I don't know that that is true. Ideal, maybe, but we live in an imperfect world and aren't these experiences so that everyone in them can learn?