Shadow Boxing

What is ALS?

It is a neurodegenerative…blah, blah, blah

Do you really want to know? Not the technical or medical jargon, what it really is. Are you ready?

ALS is a sucker punch to your soul. Out of no where bam! You’re on the ground, trying to regain your bearings, as you try to stand. Just as you think you’ve cleared the cobwebs, out of nowhere another blow. This repeats itself over and over until you take your last breath.

All this time you and your family have ringside seats to the most brutal shadow beat down ever witnessed. Your opponent an enigma; here’s the rub, you know your opponent very well. You see your opponent every time you look into a mirror. Yet every blow is still a surprise when it lands.

Yes your family and friends are in your corner, there to support you and cheer you on. Beneath their courageous demeanor is a wreck of a person, barely holding on. But they remain in your corner, blow by blow. Knowing fully well the fight is rigged and it’s a death match.

This is what ALS is.

Ending up in this fight is completely random for most. However some live knowing they may have to tag-in. These metaphors are silly, I know. But they are one way to help understand this…

To those of us living with ALS, it is much more than terminology and medical jargon. We are in fact in the fight of our lives. We need everyone in our corner, we can’t endure without you.

TJO