Category: Joy

The Surprising Reason I Need to See You Dump Ice Water on Your Head

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For me, the Ice Bucket Challenge is not just a way to raise money for ALS research. It’s not just about hope. The effect on me goes much deeper when I watch the videos. I know I have a vast support system that includes you, my dear readers. However, I can’t see you read my blog and articles. I get statistics on how many people read my words, and occasionally there are kind comments, but there’s a certain distance between us.

When I watch your Ice Bucket Challenge videos and you say my name, I feel seen. I feel less alone. The gift you give me when you make and post those videos is long-lasting and powerful. You kindle my heart, and I hold that light in my chest until next year when it’s time to repeat the challenge.

This year, I have only seen one video, and that weighs heavily on me. I feel forgotten, like the challenge was just a short-lived trend, not the promise of support and camaraderie that I originally believed it to be. I am holding on to hope that the last few days of August will surprise me, though.

Won’t you let your heart kindle mine?

If you need a reminder of how the Ice Bucket Challenge, follow the instructions below. Don’t forget to challenge three people in your video and tag them when you share the video on Facebook. If you are able to make a donation, you can do it at alsa.org.

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Are you wondering what the donations have accomplished so far? Check it out!

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“Extraordinary” Collaboration Brings Together Project MinE, Answer ALS and the New York Genome Center

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Here’s something to smile about! A big thank you to #TheALSAssociation for facilitating and helping fund this collaboration and countless other invaluable partnerships. In the shadow of Trump’s attempt to defund the National ALS Registry, witnessing The ALS Association’s commitment to streamlining research efforts to push us ever closer to a cure is truly heartening!

PS I know you are wondering how The ALS Association is able to fund so much research. It is possible because of the Ice Bucket Challenge, which is coming up in August. Get ready to get wet!

Summer Dreams

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Something about spending time on a covered porch always leads me reminiscing and daydreaming. As the rain clears to make room for the summer sun, I spend hours out there, watching my dogs play and letting my mind float on the afternoon breeze, I remember, and I plan.

This beautiful weather makes me miss canoeing with Evan terribly. The sound of the water as our paddles slid through the gentle waves slowed my thoughts so I could exist in that moment, working in perfect synchronization with Evan. I especially loved our sunset excursions when the world we knew drifted off to sleep and another secret world began to stir, a nocturnal kingdom we could only glimpse before we lost the light and our way.

When I am cured, Evan and I will return right away to the water. We will buy a red canoe and name it Carlos, and he will take us on dozens of new adventures.

The other activity I am missing is something I only did once. I was shy and nervous, so I didn’t get up the nerve to try karaoke until rather late in the game. When I finally sang into that microphone, though, I was hooked. I especially loved singing duets with Evan (he makes everything at least ten times more fun). When I have my voice back, I am going to hit every karaoke bar in town!

A Lesson on Joy

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In the movie adaptation of my life, the climactic scene would go like this: the camera slowly sweeps up to where I am snuggling into a warm plaid blanket on a rustic porch.  The sun peeks out from where it slept behind the mountain range. The soft light on my face shows I’m at peace. I struggled throughout the whole movie with how to carry on living, but last night I found the trick. My friends pushed my wheelchair out into the meadow behind my sister’s cabin, and we stayed up all night watching the stars, singing, laughing, and telling secrets. I know now that this is the key: live in the moment, live for today, and let no adventure pass me by until I close my eyes for the last time.

That’s what dying people are supposed to do, right? It’s our bittersweet version of happily ever after.

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Hanselmann Photography

For me, though, there was no mountain cabin, no midnight epiphany. For the longest time, there was only the looming specter of my death. When I was first diagnosed with ALS, I described the doctor telling me the news by saying, “He told me I’m dying.” I used to get those two things mixed up: having ALS and dying. They do sound the same. After all, there is currently no cure or treatment for this ruthless disease. Immediately after diagnosis, I planned everything from who would get my beloved cameo necklace passed down from my great grandmother to the type of funeral I want. I imagine a ceremony around a sapling which my family and friends can visit and tend to as it grows into a memory tree. I hoped my loved ones would picnic there, and children would climb my branches.

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Of course, not all of my death thoughts were so serene. The prospect of dying young fueled what became an obsession with fading into a distant memory as my loved ones grow old without me. I worried most about what I would become to my husband, Evan. I imagined being a brief chapter of his life before he meets the woman who will be the main act, the mother of his children. She will succeed where I failed, giving him the family and future he deserves, transforming me into a tragic footnote in his biography. With my mind drenched in such excruciating fears, how could I surrender to the beauty of the present?

A series of fortunate events saved me from despair. First, we moved to Portland, where I received the exact kind of care I hoped for at my new ALS clinic. I now work with a creative, emotionally intelligent doctor who is full of hope regarding treatments currently being tested. She immediately empowered me by involving me in one such trial. Finally, I was doing something to fight back, and I dared to dream that the end of my story might not be written on a tombstone.

Then, a few months later, I found the next rung of the ladder that I would climb towards joy. ALS Awareness Month crept in, and a flurry of fundraising activity swept across my Facebook feed. Guilt pressed down hard on my shoulders; I was the one with ALS, but my family was doing all the advocacy work. As a last minute attempt to get involved, I decided to write a little note on Facebook every day about my life with ALS. I didn’t expect to generate much interest, especially since I wasn’t sure how much had to say on the subject. Flash forward three days, and I was pouring my heart out to a shockingly large and invested audience. I became enamored of power those posts gave me over my experience. That power, just like the power I gained from the drug trial, gave me the bravery to fight like never before. I dove into fundraising for the ALS Association, and my doctor and I collaborated with ALS Worldwide to learn new ways to preserve my speech, strength, and mobility. As my hope blossomed, I realized I couldn’t honestly fight for a cure without spending at least as much time imagining my life after ALS as I had spent fixated on my death.

I came to understand that joy will remain a distant dream if a person can’t give equal head space to the best and worst outcomes.

Real, lasting joy pumped from my heart to every inch of my failing body when I gave myself permission to dream. Now, I imagine that Evan and I will make up for all the years we have spent bound to our home and hospital by renovating an Airstream trailer and roaming all over the country, exploring national parks, chasing northern lights, and following music festivals. I will return to writing novels because the miracle of a cure will mean that a blog about ALS will be unnecessary. Evan will play guitar in the evenings, and I’ll sing along like I used to. Everything will be beautiful, and nothing will hurt.

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A few months after I started my blog, I got a feeding tube. Lying on table looking at the distant ceiling of the operating room, it occurred to me that this would be the first scar ALS left on my body. I got sad thinking about how I would never get rid of it, even if one day I no longer needed the feeding tube. But then, I thought of myself leaning out the window of the car on a sunny day with hundreds of miles ahead of me, Evan looking handsome in the driver’s seat,  our Airstream trailing behind us, glittering in the sun like a mermaid tail, and I didn’t mind a small scar at all. Some day, it will be the only reminder of what I suffered, and should I ever get scared embarking on my new adventure, I can look to the hole sewn up right beneath my heart and know I will survive.

White-Knuckle Miracle

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I had to work for my miracle, sweat for it, white-knuckle it, but I didn’t mind; I never expected a miracle to be easy. No one promised me a rose garden.

I woke up from a nap today needing to use the bathroom, so I hit the button that pages my sister and planned how we would transfer me to the wheelchair. As she helped me get to the edge of my bed, I felt a rush of strength. Synapses sparked, lighting up my mind with the memory of walking. The path down the hallway ahead of me was clear and bright, and I saw what I could do.

“I want to walk to the bathroom,” I announced. I’ve had ALS two and a half years. At this point, abandoning my wheelchair to go for a stroll is almost as ludicrous as trying to fly.

“OK,” my sister replied without hesitation, pulling my walker in front of me. She got behind me on the bed, pushed me until I was standing, and placed her hands on my hips to steady me. “Whenever you’re ready.”

There will never be a better way to explain my sister than describing her actions in this moment.

I shuffled forward. My stiff ankles and knees, slowly remembering their job, loosened. In my mind’s eye, stringy, dry muscles were being marinated in blood pumped from my eager heart. With each step, the muscle tissue grew more swollen with life.

Over the course of ten minutes, I walked twenty feet. That’s ten minutes of a deathgrip on my walker, of clammy hands and a trembling jaw. Ten minutes of wonder and joy. I landed safely, marveling at what I accomplished.

“I’m not even out of breath,”I said, looking up at my sister. “It’s incredible.”

“I was worried about that,” she confessed, though she seemed so calm, I hadn’t even guessed. ALS affects everyone differently, but it always mounts a vicious assault on the lungs. That’s what kills us all in the end.

“I forgot to be scared,” I replied, enchanted by the sound of my own steady breathing. For those ten minutes, even my thoughts were freed from my disease. This was my very own little miracle, a butterfly dancing briefly on my open palm before fluttering away.

I once heard luck defined as the place where hard work meets an opportunity. After today, I would define a miracle as the place where hard work meets an extraordinary opportunity.  This opportunity comes through a tear in reality to bear you forward on a  divine wind. There are conditions, though. You must be ready and willing to see the tear in the fabric; that’s called hope. Understand that the wind has the strength of a hurricane (how else could it carry you?) and may batter you even as it saves you. Miracles thrive on perseverance and strong hearts.

I accept this. I am undaunted by exhaustion, bone-grinding effort, or crippling pain. I am not afraid because I have survived it all over the course of my disease and during the drug trial which, most likely, enabled me to walk today. From now on, if you come searching for me, check the crow’s nest. I’ll be perched there, on the lookout for miracles with my father’s binoculars and my mother’s optimism. I’ll be whispering, “Come. Fly over the horizon. Take your time if you must. I still believe in you.”

Fortune’s Fool

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When I was sixteen, a fortune teller at a fair predicted I would meet and fall in love with a man who would physically take care of me. At the time, I didn’t understand what she could possibly mean. Would I rely on my husband for money? I was hungry for independence and therefore a bit insulted, but most of all, I was bewildered. I needed more time with the fortune teller in her enchanting red silk tent, but she looked pointedly at her watch, then tapped the cash tray. My empty wallet made me unwelcome.

When I asked about the man I would marry at the beginning of our session, I did not imagine the ten minutes I paid for would pass so quickly and end so mysteriously. I wondered about her words for more than a decade, right up until my ALS diagnosis twelve years later. That day, I finally got the answer I sought. Doors slammed in my face. All around, clock needles spun backward. My end crept forward in every shadow.

Now, I rely on Evan to bathe, feed, and dress me, to keep me steady when I use my walker in the bathroom, even to wipe me after I use the toilet. He holds all the crumbling pieces of my body tight in his hands, as though trying to keep them safe until the miracle pill that can put me back together again finally arrives. My marriage looks nothing like it did when we were twenty-one or twenty-five, or even last year. Playtime is over, and we struggle daily to survive.

However, I realized as Evan delivered medication into my body via my brand new feeding tube, that what really matters remains unbroken. Even after all we’ve lost, he still loves me, and I will always love him. That knowledge is the bedrock of my existence, and it has yet to crack. Together, we chase happiness through a tangle of feed lines and IVs, not ready to surrender to how we live now. Side by side, with white knuckles and bloody nails, we crawl forward.

Benvolio: Romeo, away, be gone! Stand not amaz’d, the Prince will doom thee death if thou art taken. Hence be gone, away!

Romeo: O, I am fortune’s fool!

Romeo And Juliet Act 3, scene 1, 132–136

Leaves in My River, Stars in My Sky

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I hate crying – it’s an uncontrollable language of pain, and I lack enough control as it is – but I was crying tonight. I’ve heard that no single emotion is inherently good or bad. We should acknowledge them all, pick each up like a leaf from a stream, think, “It’s just sadness,” then put it back down and let the water take it away. However, I like to pick up the Sadness Leaf, crush it, and bury it in the dirt. Out of sight, out of mind.

Scrolling through my Facebook feed after dinner, I found myself thinking about all the people who stopped speaking to me after my diagnosis, and tears, undeniable evidence of sadness, came. Mostly I stay positive. My doctor and I believe I will survive long enough for a treatment or cure to be developed. That possibility and the love of my friends and family keep me fighting. Still, the deafening silence from people I grew up with, celebrated holidays and birthdays with, listened to when they were troubled… it hurts enough to make my throat clench and my eyes sting. It starts a rush of unwelcome memories of staying up late on the phone, talking a friend through a divorce. Then I recall walking down the aisle preceded by bridesmaids who have faded like ghosts from my life, existing for me now only in photographs. Friends I traveled the world with might as well have stayed on the other side of the ocean; they are that distant from me. These people I loved drifted away like debris on a beach in the first high tide after a tempest.

In the quiet after the storm of my diagnosis, my old life washed away, and I learned the truth about those I love. People who are far away or have been out of touch resurface, and I realized that for all the people nearby who are too weak to support me, there are others, scattered like stars on a winter night, who have been glowing for me this whole time.

There is the college friend I met so many years ago and now only speak with occasionally, though we once talked every day. He was the one to hear the news and call, crying. No words, just sobbing because that said it all. I cried under cover of his tears, safe because I couldn’t hear my own.

Then there is the woman I knew only for one summer back in California when together we learned to cook like adults, follow a recipe, peel a mango. She flew to me in Oregon, made her super secret special cake, and promised to stay with me until the end and hold my husband’s hand at the funeral, whenever it may come.

Seven years ago, I met a girl in a karaoke lounge in DC, and we sang Britney Spears (ironically, if that’s what you need to believe to keep reading this post). We both moved, sometimes to the same cities. We campaigned together, hit all the vegan restaurants we could find, and lounged in parks with a pile of books. She stayed up late for a month after my diagnosis to answer my desperate 2 AM phone calls. She’s coming to visit this weekend.

Last month, my in-laws moved across the country to live five minutes away. My mother-in-law feeds me pills in yogurt so I don’t choke on water and helps me clean my teeth. Then there’s my father-in-law, who brings me desserts several times a week to keep my weight up and once spent a whole day assembling my hospital bed.

And last in this post but not in my life, the aunt and uncle who surprised me by sending a box full of starfish. They live at the beach where my family went on vacations. They must remember how I couldn’t end a week at the beach without bringing a starfish home. I brought a starfish with me when my husband and I moved 3,000 miles away to remind me of my childhood, but one night Malka ate it for reasons we cannot fathom. Receiving these new starfish reminded me that I and my precious past are not forgotten.

Allowing my mind to linger on these winter stars introduces some happiness and gratitude to my swirling thoughts. They are more leaves in my river, floating alongside and softly nudging the painful ones. They make it easier to unclench the fist I made around that first sour leaf, to let it go and trail my fingers in the water to feel whatever the current holds. It drifts on, benign and unremarkable.

After all, it’s just sadness.

Wheels

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My enunciation is getting rough. The letter “s” is my particular nemesis. I slur and lisp so badly, I have stopped using plural forms, and I avoid contractions. This afternoon, though, my sloppy “s” saved the day.

By 4:00, it felt like everything that could go wrong had already happened. A scheduling error left me without a caregiver, Pickle threw up after eating too much of the food that our parrot Jasper enjoys tossing to him, and the taxi I had booked way in advance never arrived to take me to a doctor appointment.

However, I didn’t want to end the day this way. I simply refused to let the sun set on this note. You see, I have a mindset that has led to me being labelled naive and unrealistic, but I can’t seem to shake it. I suffer from a relentless optimism, a belief that it is never too late for things to get better. Maybe that really does make me naive, but I like to describe myself with such words as “resilient,” “resourceful,” and “dauntless” instead.

Consequently, when my new cab arrived bearing a kindred spirit, I was delighted but not surprised. Every day holds some shred of happiness if only you remember to look for it. Doju, my driver, also had a rough start to his day. The cab he usually drove was out of commission, so his boss saddled him with the taxi outfitted as a wheelchair van… a vehicle full of equipment Doju had never seen before.

Anxious not to mislead me, as soon as he parked at the curb, he confessed, “I’ve never worked with a wheelchair van. I don’t know exactly what to do.” His anxiety aggravated his speech impediment, and I could tell he was now embarrassed on multiple fronts.

“That’s OK,” I replied, not bothering to hide my slur over the contraction; you have to be willing to give if you’re going to get anywhere important. “Let’s figure it out together.”

And we did. Rather quickly.

We fell right into conversation once we hit the road. His stutter grew less pronounced as I waited with patience to hear him out. He got the hang of my own impediment, and then it was easy to talk and listen. We shared chocolate chip cookies I had in my purse (welcome to my life in the Clinic weight maintenance program; must love calories), and relaxed into one another’s company. It ends up Doju has a wicked sense of humor.

“Rachel, you are just great. Here’s my card. Call anytime,” he said.

“You are so sweet!” I replied, taking his card.

“Oh, no, you misunderstand,” he grinned. “You may call me anytime, but I never promised to answer. I think I will see your number fill my call log and just click delete, delete, delete…”

It ends up both stuttering and slurring disappear in laughter.

Stuck in traffic, I learned he had been born in Tibet, but was whisked away so quickly to a safer patch of earth that he cannot remember his home. Despite this, and knowing he can never return, he chose not to tell his story as a sad one. Instead, the tale he shared was about love and accepting loss. I was amazed, not for the first time, at how deeply our most distant brothers and sisters can speak the language of our own messy hearts.

Traffic crawled, and I knew I would miss my appointment by a half hour, but the day was still salvaged in my eyes. As we sat on the glimmering hot road, Doju marveled at the brilliant sunshine after such a rainy spring. I pointed out the riot of colorful flowers spilling out of gardens lining the street.

There were so many words neither of us could manage to say, but still, we chose to speak to each other. We chose to see roses.

Love and Dirty Dishes

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It’s scary to show people just how sick I am. I let visits go way too long to avoid cutting people off or kicking them out, then end up exhausted with worse speech than ever the entire next day. I feel so guilty cancelling plans; after I do it enough times, I am sure I’ve become too unreliable to deal with. There are some people, though, worth being vulnerable for if it means keeping a friendship going and growing. They make it safe to be weak.

I knew I was feeling awful when I agreed to a cooking date with my friend Brandi last night, but I had already cancelled on her a few times and I hadn’t seen her in 2 weeks – the longest we’ve ever been apart since meeting last year. She came in, hugged me, got to work chopping, and I reclined my wheelchair while she updated me on her latest adventures. I ultimately could not eat the amazing food she made, but that was fine. We talked about books and listened to music while I dozed on and off.

Part of me hated that she was seeing me droop in my chair like a wilting flower too weak to speak, but the part of me worth listening to focused on the sounds of dishes gently clinking in the sink as she tidied up. It was so normal. This is my new normal. I am not the one washing dishes anymore, and I feel some shame over that. However, I have learned there is beauty in vulnerability. I know now that love can sound like familiar, gentle hands scouring a dirty pot.

Brandi, this song is for you.

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Woman, Woman by AWOLNATION

Loud Mouth

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I have a big mouth. I wasn’t always this way. Somewhere along the line, though, I learned to talk back, something I’m especially good at when sticking up for loved ones. Even though I’m in a wheelchair and my voice is fading, I just had to say something when a man catcalled my sister Laura from his car and made her incredibly uncomfortable. As loud as I could, I let him have it in what Laura later called a “fun mix of feminist ranting and light swearing.”

Suddenly, the man drove off and Laura grabbed my wrist. “Rachel, the volume is all the way up!” she cried. I must have looked at her blankly, because she tapped the microphone at my mouth and scrambled to turn down the sound on my brand new ChatterVox voice amplifier. I totally forgot I was wearing it, and with the sound up so high, I might as well have shouted through a megaphone!

We hid by a big hydrangea bush and laughed so hard while families heading to the park and people coming home from work looked around for the crazy lady broadcasting obscenities up and down the block. I was just catching my breath when Laura said, “Well, you’re definitely still a teacher… I know those kids just learned some new words.” I started laughing all over again. She was right; I never could pass up a chance to give a vocabulary lesson.