Hi all,
I was dixed in '93 at age 30. The docs gave me the standard "2-5 years" scenario. I don't need to tell you folks how that feels!
After going through bouts of depression and anger I finally reached a point of acceptance. (My wife deserves a medal for sticking with me through some of my tantrums!)
I have accepted that ALS is a part of my life now, not the whole life, just an annoying part that is as significant as I allow it to be.
The war is over, now I can be at peace.
That doesn't mean I'm in denial. I've just adapted to that which has come into my life and improvised means around it.
We all come to that fork in the road-we can sit on the couch with the TV remote and wait for the end or accept, adapt, improvise and overcome. (I actually got that last part from Clint Eastwood in 'Heartbreak Ridge'...see? You can learn a thing or two from the movies!:wink
For a long time people would say to me that things happen for a reason. So I would respond "Then what possible reason would this disease happen to me?"
I thought long and hard about that...and it came to me, through my kids. I have been showing, by example, how to deal with adversity in a positive manner. I got my mind off of how 'I'(ego) was affected by ALS and turned it around as an on-going lesson for my kids that although the body is weak, the spirit can never be broken!
Positive mind. That is my theory in getting through this journey.
We have ALS. There is no getting around it and we don't have a choice about that. The choice we do have, however, is how spend the time we have left-laughing 'til our sides split or in a pit of despair and depression? I've been to the pit, I ain't going back! I'll take the split sides thank you!
Cheers!