Dancing with ALS and Life

dancinwithalsandlife.blogspot.com AI ART, ‘THE MMA VICTORY’ Yesterday, I was minding my own business when, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I found myself in a full-blown cat fight that resulted in gushing blood, scratches across my forehead, a swollen nose, sore ribs and chest, two black eyes, and—once again—a broken pair of glasses. You should see the other bitch. I doubt she’ll be coming around here anytime soon. I really wish I could say I was some badass female MMA fighter like Amanda Nunes. But in all honesty, the fight that left me bruised and bleeding wasn’t with another fighter. It was with the fiercest  opponent I've ever faced- ALS. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Amanda Nunes, she’s considered by many to be the greatest female MMA fighter of all time. Nicknamed “The Lioness,” she built her reputation through strength, grit, and a fearless fighting style. Now you’re probably wondering… How exactly does someone get into a MMA fight with themselves? Again, drum...

dancingwithalsandlife.blogspot.com AI ART, “The Iron Horse “ One of the most famous lines from Lou Gehrig comes from his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium in 1939: “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” He delivered it after being diagnosed with ALS, speaking with gratitude rather than bitterness despite the career-ending illness.  5/26

dancingwithalsandlife.blogspot.com AI Comedy Club  Let’s just get this out of the way: ALS is not funny. Not even a little bit. It’s tough, frustrating, unpredictable, and on many days, downright exhausting. But here’s something that might surprise you, life with ALS can still include laughter. Real, honest, sometimes snort-out-loud laughter. And no, it doesn’t mean you’re ignoring reality. It means you’re refusing to let reality take everything . Because if ALS is going to show up uninvited and start rearranging my life, I might as well get a few jokes in at its expense. Take the whole “dropping things” situation. Pre-ALS, I would drop my phone and think, Oops. With ALS, when I drop my phone or any other items suddenly it becomes a full-blown event. There’s the stare-down phase (“Can I reach that?”), the negotiation phase (“Do I actually need it right now?”), and finally the acceptance phase (“Cool, the floor owns it now.”). Honestly, if floors could talk, they’d be like, Thanks ...

  One topic people typically don't like to talk about is death and funerals. For some reason, it gives them the heebie-jeebies.  People don't like to think about, or acknowledge, their  own mortality. However, I have always found the topic very fascinating from so many standpoints, especially since we all experience the death of a loved one, and we will all die at some point. While working in local nursing homes, I was exposed to hospice care and the dying process on a weekly basis. Throughout my career as a social worker, I have made many of those Hospice referrals and walked with many individuals and their families on their journey at the end of life. And I loved it! At one point, I was actually considering going back to school to become a funeral director. I contemplated sending resumes to local funeral homes to see if they would consider hiring a social worker to support families through t...