Columns

As I drove through town, I cringed reading a church’s changeable-letter sign: “Be thankful for everything that happens to you. It’s all part of the experience.” There’s scientific evidence promoting the benefits of gratitude, so I try to practice it, but I get tired of counting my blessings…

Dear Santa, here’s my special wish list for the holiday season. I’m not asking for toys or special treats, just your help in making my holiday social events blend better with my life with ALS. Specifically, I’m hoping you can help me when I attend social gatherings, dine in…

I remember the first time my late husband, Jeff, fell as a result of ALS. Falls can be common with the disease, but I was still shocked each time one happened. When Jeff fell, it laid bare how ill qualified I felt to care for him, even while taking…

I’m a do-it-yourself kind of gal. This has served my husband, Todd, and I well over the last 14 years as I’ve been his primary caregiver. We do not have an ALS clinic near our home, and our local neurologist moved away years ago, so we don’t have medical…

Can it be that we were cheering on athletes at the Olympics only a few months ago? Where did the summer go? Looking back, I realize I spent most of my summer and early fall months distracted by the hoopla of world and national events, and now I’m exhausted. I’m…

Sometimes I find perspective when I listen to other rare disease communities. ALS News Today is just one publication of its parent company, Bionews, which hosts more than 50 online websites devoted to rare and chronic diseases. Last week, I got on Cystic Fibrosis News Today to catch up…

Sometimes people reach out to me or my husband, Todd, to get our advice on building an accessible home. We share with them what we’ve learned over the past 14 years with his ALS and progressive disability. After Todd was diagnosed, we realized that we’d need to sell…

I collect drinking straws. Not just any old straws, mind you, but long, wide-barreled plastic straws. My assortment includes several unusual straws as well, and they all help me drink beverages with ease even though I have dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing — a symptom of ALS. As I wrote…

Handling night care has been one of the hardest parts about managing ALS for my husband, Todd, but now I’m hopeful because he’s been training himself to sleep on his back. Todd has been a side sleeper, and for years he had to be turned from side to side…

Hmmmmm. That’s what my body feels when it’s doing its “humming thing.” It’s an all-over buzzy sensation that I chalk up to being another quirky symptom of my ALS. It’s a feeling I’ve never mentioned during my ALS clinic visits, mainly because I want to keep the visit rolling along…