Thanks, Al, for your many posts!

[CindyM]

Yeah- every so often I think back to those early days and remember the panic. Now that I am used to my symptoms I feel almost normal, to the point where I think I don't really belong on a board like this. But every time I get ready to move on something happens to remind me that I am not really "normal" (no jokes, AL !) after all.

But I think I may push the issue by taking up some of my former activities. If I can do a light workout with small weights, and increase it just a little bit, then maybe my body will prove what my mind believes. We will know soon enough. I plan to start my experiment tomorrow. :-D

 

[MtPockets]

May the force be with you Cindy as you start your program. :-D

Really I hope it helps you. Now, I'm really not sure about you, but I know a few of old timers, are a wee bit off.

It helps to break the monotony, I'm abie. Abie-normal. Sort of like my cats here:

 

[terri]

thanks

Hi,

I haven't posted in a long time but I couldn't let this opportunity go by without saying thank you to all of you.

I lost LB to this battle 9 months ago but I still keep watch on all of you. Everyone helped us through his

journey and I will forever be grateful to each of you.

Take care, my friends, there is always hope.

love,
terri

 

[happy]

Hi Cindy,

I am excited to hear how your workout went? I hope you had all the success you deserve.

 

[TBear]

I know that I haven't been here as often as I should and its great to see Al in such fine forum. I attended the funeral of an aquaintance this past weekend who lost out to ALS. The stories and infamy that accompanied her "life celebration" almost all occurred in the last few years. It brought back a lot of memories for me and reminds me that we all need to grab these things before we lose them... but Al... there still ain't no stinkin' way I am leaving a perfectly servicable aircraft while its still flying!

I don't know if you were here Cindy with the likes of Carol and her red bikini, Fisher and his back deck and Downtown Johnnie and his beloved Leafs... but Al's trip across the lawn on his new, riding lawn mower is a classic story that is likely buried in the threads of time... and bears repeating!

Have a great weekend everybody... do something memorable!

t.

 

[CindyM]

Hi t Bear- You are so right about Al's lawn-mowing story being a classic! Imaging for a moment being in my shoes- my GP and local Neuro were sayign they were "very worried" about my symptoms and wanted me to go to a specialist. I asked what the new clinic specializes in and they said "ALS." Well, I didn't know what those initials stood for so I googled it and found myself here.

We were making frantic plans for coping with MND. Both hubby and I cried every day, I think. But one of the first stories I read was AL's lawn-mowing tips and MT's story about having the boat take off before he could clmb into it. Those tears did not last too long, I can promise you!

So thanks for sharing, each of you. It has made all the difference for me, at least.

 

[MtPockets]

And they still continue today.
It would be great if you could copy AL's lawn mower ride and repost it. If it is not lost in infamy.

 

[rick/Wpg]

Hey Cindy and all...
You are right...the laughter chases away the tears! My wife and I have been going thru exactly the same thing.
Had a thought...maybe somehow a thread could be created of ' Memorable Stories' from some of those earlier posts..the lawnmower story, the boat story,etc......LOL ...like you moderators don't have enough to do as well as sort thru old threads looking for stories
Rick & Joan

 

[Al]

Those stories should still be findable. Do you remember the title of the thread yours was in Al?
AL.

 

[MtPockets]

"Avatar Incompentent" was this one,

Yeah AL that's the grass in my back yard since I'm afraid of the lawnmower now. haha If I fell in it doubt the wife would even notice. Looks like it needs cutting pretty bad.

Another tale of woe is me:

I was in my wheelchair on a farm we use to own before the DX. It was a horse farm but all we had was about 30 chickens that I had raised from biddies and a cocker spaniel. They both followed me everywhere thinking I was their mother I guess. Looked like the pied piper sometimes.

My wife had left for town and I decide to go feed the chickens in my wheelchair, now we are talking about 8 acres of land with the chickens being about 300 feet away from the house. Neighbors are far away. Yeah I know you know what is coming. I did not have my back anti-flip wheels on the wheelchair, they got in the way too much, yeah right, started to the chicken coop and began to pick up speed downhill, tried to slow with wheel bars without much effect, when a root suddenly grew out of the ground right in front of me. Never saw it there before so figured it must have just grown instantly, boy farm fertilizers are great, my wheelchair flipped over backward and I hit my head on the NEW root. Nice!

I tried to get up and recover my pride,which by now I had very little left, looked around to see if any neighbors were in their yards that might help, of course not. I had so many spasms and weakness I could not get up so decided to lay their looking at the beautiful blue sky and petting the faithful dog while a flock of about 30 chickens scratched all around me and were wondering what happened to breakfast.

Then noticed the sky was no longer blue or beautiful, but had a rain cloud headed my way. Well the pasture needed watering anyway, so lay there for a few hours looking at raindrops falling on my head, hey sounds like a song.. Then my wonderful understanding wife drove up, got out of the car and said," What do you think you are doing?" I don't think I could repeat what I said, but don't think it was very good at the time.
ha ha ha

Oh well, another tale in the life and legend of stupid hollow, or is that sleepy, get the two mixed up. I think there is a lesson here somewhere.
God Bless and have the best day possible.
</IMG>

 

[fiddleplayer51]

Here are some funny posts I've come across in my reading as I try to get to know you folks. I've put dates of posts and the name of the person posting:

08-27-2004, 12:26 PM
Carol Deboer

Hey Fisher,

Sorry I dissappointed you this summer, but man, it has been cold. I had to wear a fur bikini for the first time! Of course , it was made of beaver! We are just heading up to Port 'Franks right now for the weekend. We spent 4 weeks up there this summer. It was great. Henry had a wonderful time. We took his motorized lazy-boy up there and put it on the deck. It worked great for me. It was easier on my arms and back. However, I have great biceps now. Henry is following right on track too. Same as you. Hard to see, hard to live it too., Anyway, got to goget ready, got to go to the beer store and stop and get a bottle of Coli Albani for sunday dinner. Take care, and stay strong. Think of you often.

Carol D. xoxo
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
08-30-2004, 07:08 PM
TBear

Carol... nothing can ever be funny again. See Fisher... Carol wasn't missing. It's just that we were looking for a blonde in a black leather stringed bikini... possibly in red... when all along it was fur!
T.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
09-19-2004
Al

Skydiving

Well folks let me tell you it was a beautiful day for an airplane ride. From 4000 ft you could see the CN Tower from about 15 miles south of Wasaga Beach. Not much wind but when you put your left foot out on the step at 80 miles per hour and try to grasp the strut. (The thing that sort of holds the wing on for you non pilots) with your left hand (the one that is weakened most by ALS) well interesting things happen. First you tumble backwards. That's ok because your chute opens automatically because of the static line attached to the floor of the airplane. A bit disorienting at first but ok. Then you say to yourself. Should have worn the gloves I brought. Temp is a little colder up here at 80 miles an hour. Damn hands stiffen up in the cold. Have to remember that next time(?) still manage to grab the toggles that are used to steer and they don't want first time jumpers doing anything too fancy so the turns weren't too bad, very gentle turns. Great view and it was fabulous. As good as my first solo in a Cessna 152 30 years ago. So after hanging around for 3-5 minutes in the air it was time for the landing. To flare you have to pull these toggles from over your head down as far as you can reach. Not as graceful a landing as I wanted. Did land on my feet but toppled forward and have a bruised knee for it. But I will tell you without sounding like a wimp that every muscle in my body is aching tonight. But I would do it again tomorrow. It was worth it. I wish I had done it sooner so I wouldn't hurt so much now but a red wine is easing some of the pain. I know I'm not as far progressed as some of the other folks here but I would have to say if you ever wanted to do something and thought you might not be able to do it. Go for it Try it. It doesn't cost anything to ask and you might be surprised what you can still do. As for telling the skydive people about ALS it is best to not mention it until after you have done it. The instructor just about crapped when I told him about it after. He had asked the 3 of us jumping why we were there and wanted to jump. We told him that we would tell him when we got down. He didn't know what ALS was or Lou Gehrigs disease so we had to go through the whole scenario for him. I think he thought I was nuts but he shook my hand and said congratulations and commended me for my courage. Kind of made a nice ending to a perfect if not textbook jump. I'd really like to thank my friend Terry for getting me off my butt and making me realize that I can still be productive and still do some of the things that I have put off for years. His dad is about my age and lives in Newfoundland and has ALS but a bit worse than me. Kind of long winded but as you might guess I'm still pretty excited about it. So I think it is about time to crash for the night and hope tomorrow brings some limber muscles. Night All.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11-18-2004, 01:58 PM
PALS Mike

btw - I'm a beer & red wine (used to make my own)lover. Gimme a bottle of "Fat Bastard" (no joke...) anytime. Their Shiraz is awesome!


11-18-2004, 08:46 PM
Al

Geez and here I thought that when people said Fat Bastard they were talking about me. And now they have named a wine after me.
I'll have to hunt some down. I usually make/bottle my own but it might be worth it as a conversation piece.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Al mentions his upcoming trip to Cuba and here is Tbear's reply:


11-24-2004, 07:16 PM
TBear

Okay Al, basic Cuban... "un cerveza mas, por favor". I'm not sure you want the other one that I know... I tried it with one of the guides and got kicked out of the country... apparently I tried to hire his sister... but would settle for his horse! Cubans are very nice but apparently don't have much of a sense of humour. If you want to get on their good side... bring extra toothpaste and soap and stuff that you can give away to the housekeeping staff... they really appreciate it!

11-24-2004, 08:22 PM
Al

As for Cuba I am a little rusty as I haven't been in 3 years but my son worked there as a scuba diving instructor for 4 years so I learned basic spanish. I could ask for food booze or sex and directions to Sierra Mar in spanish. Chris tried to start his own business there but the gov't wants everything and gives not much in return. We have driven the whole length of the country from Santiago to Havanna twice (1000km) each way. Fun WOW. You are right about the Cuban people. The most accomadating people I have met and friendliest but no sense of humor.
We had a Cuban stay with us for a while when he first came to this country and he could not understand our way of playing practivcal jokes on each other. He couldn't see why we would want to laugh at our friends. And here I thought Fidel was laughing at Bush every day.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's what I responded to CindyM on 04-16-2008, 07:47 PM. I repeat it here because it fits under the humor dept.:

I've just been reviewing some of your old posts, Cindy, and came across your thread called "Attitude" started 12/18/2006. Your description of visiting your daughter in Denver and your trip to the candy factory and mall was hilarious! And then poor Al told his story about falling and it took 4 people to get him up. (His story sounded painful though!) And Liz said her sons probably wouldn't even notice if she fell. I'm still laughing about MtPockets' addition to that thread: "Sounds very familiar everyone. You know it's bad when there are several people in your home talking, and your legs give away and you fall on the floor, and everyone keeps talking and walking around you.
Hey, YALL, I'm down here, could you give me some help? Oh just a minute I have got something in the oven and the other has to go to the bathroom, meanwhile my dog is licking me like a lollipop. Whew, she stinks, I've got to get someone to give the poor thing a bath."

MtPockets, that truly made my day!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

All the best to everyone. Let's help each other lighten up. Laughter is such a potent medicine. The posts quoted above really helped me out of the doldrums last week and the week before. I hope Carol is doing okay. She is able to be so hilarious in the face of tremendous struggle. If you still read these posts, Carol, I'm grateful to you for your example as a wife. You were able to maintain such a sense of humor as you cared for your husband.
Tbear, four years after your wife died you continued to give such tremendous support and advice to others. And here you are still checking in. Thank you and thank you for your wonderful sense of humor!
Like I said to Al in post #7 above "Sounds like you folks were having too much fun back in November 2004! But then I don't guess it's possible for folks dealing with ALS to have too much fun, is it?!"

Jane

 

[MtPockets]

Some of the good ones are on "Fatique" about the boat floating away. I cannot get the "posts made by me" to go back any further than 4 pages? I know there were some about the crazy lawn mowers, etc. Here are the only 2 I could find.

I know the feeling, I am, was a work-a-holic. My job was my life for years, and then I realized my family was more important to me than my job. When I became disabled 18 years ago it took me years to get over going to work. I would dream about it every night. I kept trying to do things that I knew would cause me pain the next day, until I found myself falling about 5 to 10 times a week due to the nerve damage and muscle loss in my legs. Finally my doctor told me to stay in my wheelchair before I broke something really bad. I've come close many many times, but thank God never broke anything although I sprained a lot of things.

What not to do:
I loved to fish and have my own boat so I decided to go out by myself about 24 miles offshore for some relaxing fishing. I used my canes to launch my boat and tied a rope to it so it would not float off when I launched it off the trailer. The rope got stuck in the tailgate of the truck and cut it, so now the boat if floating loose at the dock. I tried to hurry(Yeah Right) to the dock to catch the run away boat, tried to move but my legs said don't think so, at least not that fast, fell on the pier, finally caught up with my boat at the end of the pier as it was about to float out to sea.

Moved the truck and boat trailer to parking where since my leg muscles had decided to go on break, it took twenty minutes to walk back to the boat and leave the dock. Well so far ok. Got offshore over 24 miles no other boats in sight, started fishing. Caught a small fish and went to throw it overboard while standing between my center console on the boat and the side of the boat. About this time my legs fell out from under me and I found myself sitting with my back on the center console and my knees in my chest with my legs jammed against the side of the boat, with multiple muscle spasms.

What a dumb mess I had gotten myself in. I could not move, could not reach the radio to call for help, STUCK.....After 20 minutes I was finally able to squirm my way loose and crawl back to my boat seat, and this was BEFORE I was DX with ALS.

I had enough, headed for home, then got to the boat ramp and tried to figure out how one person was going to load a boat. Put the trailer in the water, drove the boat up on the trailer and then the only way to finish winching the boat up was to climb over the bow of the boat and step down on the trailer to work the winch.

Another mistake, my legs gave way and I found myself hanging from the front of the boat by the boat rails, that is until I fell.
Several people at the ramp watched the comedy of errors but none came to my aid. Finally got the boat on the trailer and home, and there it has sat for some time now.

Some people are smart they know their limitations and stick to them , others have to push to the limit before they get the message.

I always did have to learn the hard way my wife says. It's funny now, but at the time NOT so funny...

Please learn from my mistakes and if you are weak, get in the wheelchair before you fall and break a hip or something. Do things in moderation, take your time, and let others help you. Don't be ashamed that you can't walk all over home depot or Wal Mart, use one of their wheelchairs. if you need it.

Just my 2 cents, hope it helps some. God Bless and have as good a day as possible.
AL

 

[Al]

This link should work for the lawn mower thread.
AL.

https://www.alsforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1061&highlight=full+contact+lawn+mowing

 

[MtPockets]

AL that is such a classic for all us manly types who do not listen to people trying to tell us what to do. After all we know what to do? :-D:-D:-D It is still as funny as the day you wrote it.
For those who have not read "ALL" the stories, here is just one sample. You should go to the link and read for a good belly laugh.

First .you should wear a hat with a soft brim. This will help when you fall off riding mower and do a face plant on the branch you were leaning over to pick up.
Second .wear long pants so you rip the pants not your shin while tumbling off aforementioned mower.
Third. Always switch into neutral while stopped to try to pick up aforementioned branch. This will stop the mower from wildly going through ditch onto road and turning back down driveway and going back across lawn and into flower garden coming to rest on piece of driftwood just 3 feet from crashing through picture window.
Fourth. Always disengage blades when stopped to pick up branches. This will avoid mower mowing down flowers and bushes as it careens through garden.
Fifth. Always make sure that some other responsible adult (wife) is there to help you up off ground after taking a face plant onto branches.
Six. Make sure said responsible adult knows how to stop runaway mover. When mower is careening towards house is not the time to be telling wife which of the 6 levers is the throttle.
Seven. After mowing grass have a large glass of wine. It will help ease the pain but not the I told you so comments from responsible adult that runs down driveway saying Oh No How do I stop it?
Eight. Learn from the mistakes of others. You might not live long enough to make them all yourself.

:-D:-D:-D:-D