After the Diagnosis

Needless to say, the diagnosis stunned us. I knew something was up, but never suspected that was what we were going to hear. We had our first ALS Clinic appointment in September 2009, which mostly consisted of filling out paperwork and meeting all the doctors that would be assigned to the case. Our first "real" appointment came later, in October. It was referred to as a "clinic appointment" in which you meet with all your doctors—the social worker, the speech pathologist, the physical therapist, the nutritional nurse, the representative from Muscular Dystrophy, and the regular ALS doctor (who turned out to be the director of the clinic)—at least, I think that was all. Since I'm writing this in March 2011, it's been a year and a half ago already; kind of hard to remember everything. After this first clinic appointment, he was subjected to many other tests over the next couple of months.

At our January 2010 appointment, we were told the news we didn't want to hear—Dennis did indeed have ALS. Dr. Lomen-Hoerth expressed that it was "slowly progressing" and that they would monitor him and schedule quarterly appointments. She felt confident at that time to pursue this course of action because his condition had only affected his lower left leg, though he did have signs of progression which included excessive muscle twitching, mostly in his upper left leg. She said each patient is affected differently; she had had patients who lived many years and other who had expired very quickly.

Leaving the clinic, I was devastated. Dennis always held his emotions and what he was really thinking inside, rarely expressing them verbally. We both had to come to the realization that we could not deny this any longer. The experts had confirmed it. We endured a mostly silent ride home with the music being the only sound in the car.

The next month was spent in mostly quiet contemplation, with both of us ignoring the "elephant in the room" as the old saying goes. While I have always understood what it means, when you're living it, it's entirely different. With all the shitty news, little did we know that an angel would help us fulfill a dream.