A BRIEF history

In the beginning ....

really though. So , many of you know my story . Too bad! You get to hear it , again! Where was I ? Oh , yeah . I was just your friendly neighborhood post man. One day , my gorgeous wife was caressing my shoulder and noticed that I quivered with enjoyment . Nah , we were actually watching TV and she had her hand on my shoulder , noticed I was twitching , and asked if I ever noticed it myself . Cue the grammar police .

That began a year long journey to diagnosis . November 18, 2015. I was given 2-5 years to live . That's pretty much how a ALS diagnosis goes down . No pep talk. No options . No hope . Sure , they tell you about a couple of " treatments" that may prolong life by a few months , but there are no misgivings . You WILL die .

So, here I am . 10 years later . Well almost . I am still kicking . I plan to do so as long as the man upstairs allows . It has been a rough road . We have been faced with many challenges . We continue to face many more . Lots of tears . Lots of laughs . Ugliness and beauty . Questions . Why? What do we do next ? How are we getting through this ? Why am I still here? It is the reality of the disease .

Living this long is both a blessing and a curse . On the one hand , I am grateful to be here for so many reasons . On the other , it's completely alienating . You don't know what alone is until you are locked into a body failing and people don't "see" you anymore . I will be honest . The holidays made that very evident this year . I am sorry to say that , but I refuse to sugarcoat anymore . It just sucks.

I won't harp on it any longer . The road still lies ahead and it ain't ending any time soon . I just wanted to get that off my chest . So , now that that's done , I can move on to funner shit! Oh , the places we'll go ...