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The reason I am chronicling my journey is there are some things my doctors can’t explain. As best I can figure, my ALS started in 1993. When I took my girls to see Disney movies tears flowed uncontrollably during certain scenes. My girls had never seen me cry before. Then in 2007, I lost my ability to run. It was as if a switch had been thrown. Just the day before I had run like the wind. A few months later, I noticed in the shower I had lost my ability to blow my nose. When I tried, the air came out of my mouth. During this period, I started coughing when I drank from a soda can. I had to use a straw to avoid fluid going down my windpipe. 

From 2007 onward, my legs got weaker and weaker. I worked on aircraft which entailed a lot of squatting to make repairs. I had to use tricks to get up from the deck. Then in 2010 in November, the other shoe dropped. It was 38 degrees, I rode my motorcycle to work on a Saturday morning. I arrived at work and got off my motorcycle, to my dismay, my right leg had stopped working. I struggled my way to the breakroom. With the warmth of the breakroom, my leg function returned. However, the hanger wasn’t heated and I struggled to do my work. I had been complaining to my doctors during these years about my symptoms, the doctors told me I was just getting older.

 There were a lot of warning signs through the years, not that the doctors could have done anything to prevent what was to come. Another sign was when I descended down ladders, my legs moved in pulses. I noticed this in my arms too when putting heavy things down. I rode to see my GP doctor. It was cold outside and it produced my limp for him. He sent me to see a neurologist. The neurologist gave me the bad news, I had Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and I had maybe five years at the maximum to live, that was in 2011. My place of employment forced me out after I told my manager. My wife, Mary, scheduled a trip to Europe after my employer forced me out. Here is where things get interesting.

We were on a flight to France about halfway across the Atlantic Ocean. I was sitting in an aisle seat. Then it happened, a woman needed me to get up so she could get past me. To my astonishment, I just popped up as if there was nothing wrong with me. I told Mary, she doubted my account. The next day in Paris, we were walking toward Les Invalides where the ashes of Napoleon are entombed, we were about to cross the Seine river when Mary said she wanted to sit and rest for a while. I had walked my wife to near exhaustion, and I felt great. 

I sat with Mary until she was ready to resume our walk. We got up and it was as if a switch in my body had been thrown, I started running around Mary at an ever-increasing speed which panicked Mary. Mary told me to stop before I hurt myself. Remember, I hadn’t been able to run since 2007 and that had been four years. When we returned to North America, my ALS symptoms returned. The next year we went to Rome. My ALS had advanced to the point that I needed a walking pole to steady myself to walk.

Then it happened again, I felt the switch being thrown. All of a sudden I could walk normally. Given enough time, I believe my ability to run would have returned. Every time we left North America, whether to go to Europe or South America, I got better. I reported this to my ALS doctor and he had no explanation, I wonder if he even believed me and Mary. Flash forward to the present, I am sixty years of age. I have taken a renewed interest in the game of chess. I did this to test if what I had been observing in my mental acuity was accurate. I had observed in myself for the last two years that it is easier for me to learn new skills. I seem to be getting smarter.

When I was younger, I couldn’t visualize a chessboard in my mind. But now, I can recall in my mind’s eye several of chess’s openings. How is that possible? My chess play continues to get stronger. Here are two examples of ten minutes games against human opponents.