When Dagmar was diagnosed with ALS at the age of 59 in 2010, she tapped into her nearly 30 years of professional experience. She not only follows her own wellness and fitness advice but also inspires and teaches others to do the same. Dagmar is a patient columnist at BioNews, writing “Living Well with ALS.” In addition, she is one of the moderators for the ALS News Today Forum and writes a personal blog called “ALS and Wellness.” She lives in Arizona, enjoying finding humor in life's situations, and spends her free time pursuing creative projects in fiber arts.
Life with ALS often feels like a crash course in adaptability but being adaptable doesn’t come naturally for many of us. However, whether you’re the patient, caregiver, or a family member, I believe you can learn how. Read on and let’s get started. In my pre-ALS life…
If you are living with ALS, here’s a question for you: When was the last time you spent the time to learn something? It can’t include watching a TV newscast or scanning the news feed on your mobile device. I mean quality time spent with books or…
For those of us living with ALS, every day can have a stressful event. The key, I believe, is to move through the event and, if possible, remember it with humor. I recently came across a quote from the movie “Slow West” that reminds me that…
My ALS diagnosis was in 2010. In the months following, I tried to learn as much as possible about the condition and how it would affect my life going forward. I discovered that medical experts knew almost everything about the physical progression of ALS and what to expect…
Sometimes living with ALS makes me feel like I’m competing in the Olympics. I wake up in the morning and wonder how my body will perform that day. Then I lie awake at night rehashing all the things that went wrong. The voices in my head often sound…
If you’re like me and live with ongoing physical changes from ALS, you’ve probably used workarounds. What is a workaround? A workaround is a creative, temporary solution that solves an everyday problem. For example, in the real world, folks put red duct tape over a broken tail light…
Hello again! I’ve just returned from my summer vacation — my month-long vacation from ALS! No, I didn’t suddenly escape my disease or experience a miraculous recovery; my ALS is most certainly still here. My vacation was a mental vacation; an abstention from any and all ALS-associated media;…
Swallowing. It’s such a simple thing to do! We’re born with the ability to swallow; it happens automatically, and the average person does it approximately 600 times a day. I mean, who actually thinks about swallowing? Well, I do, now that I’ve joined the nearly 80…
For most of my adult life, keeping track of my health was easy peasy — at least, it was before I had ALS. I always followed the recommended guidelines for annual exams, participated in my employer’s work site wellness screens and made sure my immunizations were up…
Having ALS is certainly no laughing matter, but I’ve found that living with it can give rise to many humorous moments. Most of my “laugh out loud” episodes are the result of misunderstood conversations, encounters with Murphy’s Law, or while attempting to open “tamper-proof” pill bottles. I’ll…
