Thanks to God for the Internet and the forums like this that it allows. We have discovered over the course of the last few years that distraction is an awesome coping mechanism. Jackie spent her life hiking the mountains of Strathcona park on Vancouver Island and travelling the world, living in a few different places for extended periods of time. She was a highly accomplished Yoga instructor, and a massage therapist, though it was only her interest in health and fitness that motivated her, not a need to find a career. She loved to dance. She was a great dancer. This woman could do anything she set her mind on. We bought a little airplane and the both of us got our pilots license.
And then... ALS... three years ago now.
I believe that it was her discipline and her ability to move forward... to achieve... that has allowed her to cope as well as she has, though now this means finding distractions. To this end we have travelled even more than we always did. Last year we were away from home for seven months, spending time in the Caribbean, the southern States, Europe and the Meditterranean. We've been home now for the last six months. Her condition has been deteriorating to the point where extended trips are no longer realistic. Still though... somehow there must be a way to cope. She found it in the unlikeliest of places.
Thank God for television. Jackie was such an active person throughout her life that she never watched a scrap of TV... hadn't seen a single episode of MASH or Cheers or Friends or Star Trek or anything of the like. It has been a godsend though now... allowing her to laugh and forget, if only for a moment, her tragic reality.
Only those of us who have experienced it directly or through watching a loved one suffer can truly understand. Thanks to God for forums like these where people can share their heartache and their hope and be understood and welcomed.
It has been a tough go lately. The last few years have been difficult but tolerable. We're gearing up now though for what we expect will be far worse. Watching a completely independent and young woman (she is only 43 now) slowly lose complete body function is a terrible thing. Only knowing that others have shared this experience and are here on this forum helps to make the suffering easier.
Thanks to you all for being there. You are all so beautiful.