Living Well with ALS - a column by Dagmar Munn

  Seize the Day! Lately that’s been my morning mental mantra. I visualize it as a chant and it’s the secret weapon I use every December to help me adjust to the onset of winter and face the end of the year. Even though I’m lucky to live…

OK, so now I’m an official member of the ALS Boogie Board Club! No, it’s not a club for surfer-dudes with ALS. I’m using a Boogie Board Jot 8.5 eWriter, a unique gadget that replaces writing with pen and paper. I received it during my recent visit to the…

Last week I spent a few hours visiting with my medical team at the ALS Clinic. Usually I leave feeling a bit tired from all the testing and chatter, but I always leave satisfied I’ve learned something new and helpful. You’d think that since I’ve been…

For most people, the holidays are a time of joy and good cheer. But when living with ALS, or providing care for someone who does, holiday activities have the potential to add stress to an otherwise happy season. Over the years, I’ve come to rely on a…

Even though November is National Caregivers Month, I think we also should include Good Samaritans and caring strangers. Everyone who opens a door or helps carry a bag, hands us items off the top shelf or points us in the right direction; a big thank you…

The other day, while skimming through a list of reader comments on ALS News Today, I ran across one remark that stopped me in my tracks. It was a complaint regarding the photo that accompanies this column. The reader thought the woman in the wheelchair looked too healthy…

Recently, thanks to my ALS News Today publisher, I had the exciting opportunity to test out an Echo Show. Why would I rate that as exciting? Well, we already owned an Amazon Echo (tower-type) device, but with my ALS-affected voice, I was batting zero activating it.

“Have you seen this?” The opening line of my friend’s email certainly caught my attention. Turns out my friend sent along a link to a website, one of the new online ALS resources that have been popping up lately. Eagerly I checked it out, and being pleased with…

Quick! Guess where I was the other day? Hint: I spent quality time with a few ghosts, goblins and vampires. Nope, I didn’t visit a haunted house – I went for a haircut! You sure can’t tell from the outside, but where I go has an explosion…

During my last visit to the ALS clinic, my neurologist surprised me with an invitation to be a participant in a clinical trial that she was conducting. It was open to 50 of her patients, it could be completed in our own homes, and only it required…