Strombe
New member
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2019
- Messages
- 0
- Reason
- Loved one DX
- Diagnosis
- 02/2018
- Country
- US
- State
- SC
- City
- Greenville
Hello all,
My father was first diagnosed with lower motor neuron ALS roughly one year ago. He got the official diagnosis in September 2018 when they were finally certain that it was not CIDP. Within the week my Dad was diagnosed, I accepted my first job out of graduate school and moved 2 and a half hours away. A few weeks later, my mom was diagnosed with Stage 4 gastric cancer. My family was completely devastated. We are all very, very close and it all came out of nowhere. My parents have led healthy, active lives and before we knew it everything changed.
My dad is still walking, and I’m trying to be thankful for that. But I come home to visit most weekends and it seems like every week he loses more and more arm strength. He’s barely scraping by to feed himself at this point. My mom is doing fairly well to take care of both of them but everything just seems to be getting harder and the hardest part is that they are both going through something so scary and it’s so hard for them to lean on each other when they need emotional support now more than ever.
I’m a speech-language pathologist and I work at a hospital where I see people with various diseases and disorders, including ALS. I always considered myself an empathetic clinician but I have to admit I had absolutely no idea what my patients go through until I’ve seen it happen with my own family. There is so much that I took for granted.
I’m just so scared. Looking for some support and any sense of hope from someone who has been through this because I don’t know how I’m going to be able to deal with this.
My father was first diagnosed with lower motor neuron ALS roughly one year ago. He got the official diagnosis in September 2018 when they were finally certain that it was not CIDP. Within the week my Dad was diagnosed, I accepted my first job out of graduate school and moved 2 and a half hours away. A few weeks later, my mom was diagnosed with Stage 4 gastric cancer. My family was completely devastated. We are all very, very close and it all came out of nowhere. My parents have led healthy, active lives and before we knew it everything changed.
My dad is still walking, and I’m trying to be thankful for that. But I come home to visit most weekends and it seems like every week he loses more and more arm strength. He’s barely scraping by to feed himself at this point. My mom is doing fairly well to take care of both of them but everything just seems to be getting harder and the hardest part is that they are both going through something so scary and it’s so hard for them to lean on each other when they need emotional support now more than ever.
I’m a speech-language pathologist and I work at a hospital where I see people with various diseases and disorders, including ALS. I always considered myself an empathetic clinician but I have to admit I had absolutely no idea what my patients go through until I’ve seen it happen with my own family. There is so much that I took for granted.
I’m just so scared. Looking for some support and any sense of hope from someone who has been through this because I don’t know how I’m going to be able to deal with this.