pleasepassthesalt:

28 DAYS TIL 30

In the last 30 years I’m grateful for/proud of: my caring family and support network.

Everyone needs one regardless of their life circumstances, and I’m lucky to have the kind of family/close friends that support me both through the normal, everyday life occurrences and when I need an ear to listen or a little extra help with time management because of CF.

How I celebrated my support network: by spending time with someone else’s support network.

We participated in another Walk to Defeat ALS in honor of Matt’s uncle on Saturday. Matt’s uncle’s team was the top fundraiser for this Houston-area walk and got to cut the ribbon to start off the walk. It was amazing to see so many friends and family out to support him.

Compared to the College Station ALS walk, there were a lot more ALS patients participating with their teams and seeing them filled me with a combination of sadness and—in a weird way—camaraderie. So many men and women are in the same boat as Matt’s uncle. So many experiencing the same loss of motor skills. So many in the same fancy wheel chairs, unable to use their hands and losing their ability to talk. But all with the same smile on their face and the same positive attitude and a large groups of family/friends walking with them.

Watching how quickly this disease has disabled Matt’s uncle is heartbreaking to me and I have only known him for 5 short years. I can’t imagine the combination of shock and grief and other emotions each ALS patient and their immediate family must feel during the quick and ravaging course of this disease. It’s inspiring to see so many rise up to support them…especially knowing that the support needed is much more physically demanding and emotionally draining than what I have needed and experienced in my life with a much slower-progressing disease.

I don’t really have much else to say except that I admire the courage with which Matt’s uncle, aunt and cousin face this disease and hope that if I were faced with the situation where I’m powerless against my disease that I could put on as brave a face as they do.

I walked in the Bay Area Walk to Defeat on Oct 29th in memory of my father.  My niece Sarah and several of her friends walked in College Station.