IntrinsicTina

As you may or may not know, ALS tends to rob sufferers of their ability to chew, swallow, and generally savor food as we once did.  Excess salivation is only the tip of the "iceberg".  With the loss of muscle mass (even in the facial region), the act of eating becomes a tiring exercise in futility.    To extend our lives, some of us resort to allowing a peg tube to be surgically installed into our stomachs else we would succumb to death by starvation, slow and insidious.  I remain undecided on this measure but will likely opt-in. I love food!  I consider myself a "foodie" as well as a compulsive eater but I must stipulate that I LOVE good quality food.  Don't give me a Hershey bar, I prefer Lindt or better yet, Boehm's Gianduja as my husband will attest.  Why go to Applebee's when one can score better taste and quality having the $15 "3 Course Lunch" at Palisade? My appetite has changed since the onset of ALS.  As with most of my activiti...

ALS is a devastating illness to be sure.  It robs us of the use of our own appendages; arms, legs and our heads (but not our brains).  It robs us of our ability to speak and even to breathe eventually.  What possible humor can come from such horror?  The inevitability of our demise hangs over our head.  What's funny about that?  Plenty, depending upon one's point-of-view. Early on, I had been warned away from ladders by my ALS buddies at the support group and agreed to leave the climbing to Rod.  However, auto-pilot kicked in and in my mind, I was able-bodied once more.  I wanted to add paprika to my eggs and automatically grabbed my wooden 3-step Ikea stool.  Bing, bing, bing up I go and freeze.  "Honey?  Will you come help me down?", I warble.  He was not amused. At Christmastime an intestinal flu bug made the rounds and I caught it.  For days I was reduced to a state I can only describe as infantile.  Stuff was...

March brought serious surprises to my life. Although I haven't mentioned it, I've been struggling with an increasing disability.  Since late last year, I've been plagued with an unstable spinal condition. What started off as a troublesome pain in my neck (October/November) has deteriorated into diminishing control over the fingers in my right hand (January) and arm (February).  This condition left me without any other option but to file a claim with our state's department of Labor and Industries. (March).  The tenacity of this condition coupled with the state's lethargy to diagnose and treat my condition, spurred my employer into cutting me loose (April). Unfortunately, because of this relentless deterioration, I've had to give up many of my preferred activities and pastimes: personal computing (blogging, social networking, learning new programs). Digital photography (capturing, uploading, captioning, classifying, and printing), knitting and crocheting, p...