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ALS Awareness Month Spotlight: Denise Hagen
Hey everyone! Hope you’re all having a great week so far.
Check out our last feature for ALS awareness month. Thanks again to everyone who has shared stories for this project!
This is Denise Hagen’s story:
“I’m the spouse of a person with ALS. We’ve been married 43 years, and were two weeks away from starting our dream retirement when he was diagnosed in January 2019. We aren’t able to carry out most of our original dreams, but we are working hard to create a life that gives us joy.
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Contributed by Denise Hagen[/caption]
One of the first things I remember the “ALS experts” telling us was that living with ALS would become our new normal. I couldn’t even imagine that would ever happen. We were still in denial. Well, over a year since his diagnosis, I understand what they were saying. It’s certainly not normal, but we’re not in a breathless panic every waking minute of every day anymore. We’ve entered the coping phase, as his condition progresses. The biggest emotional struggle we have these days is how to appropriately talk with our four grandkids about what’s happening with their beloved Papa. We want to be able to tell them that Papa will be okay, just in a different way. We’ll never quit looking for ways to stop the progression of this disease. We still have a lot of life to live, and laughs to have with family and friends. #WhatALSistome”
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