|
|
Marcy's Fight Against ALS This web site is designed to help you find hope. It shows how you can choose to learn about your situation and then act on the knowledge you find. It is to remind us of what it says in Deuteronomy 30:19:
"I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live" In early 2000 my wife, Marcy, was winning 5 and 10K races she ran. She was room mother and brownie troop leader for our daughter and soccer mom for our son. In August of 2000, she was diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. This is a motor neuron disease which doctors say is always fatal. 50% of patients die within 3 years of diagnosis, the other 50% wish they had. October of 2000 Marcy had to resign her executive director position at Happy Tales Humane - the no kill animal shelter she helped start in Franklin, TN. She stopped walking Thanksgiving of 2001, had to get a feeding tube to eat September of 2002, and since March of 2003 has been quadriplegic and on a ventilator in our living room at home. As Marcy’s caregiving took more and more of my time, I had to leave the advertising agency I helped start. Caring for Marcy is now my 24/7/365 job. Though there has been a physical decline, Marcy's mind and Spirit are stronger than ever. Marcy has chosen to live. This web site has recorded and will continue to record her triumph over this fatal disease in an effort to help others. If you find this site interesting and know someone with a chronic illness, forward this URL to them - or tell them to go to everydayisprecious.com - and spread the word. Some of the buttons to the left are explained below: Daily Updates - This site is updated daily in our blog. Click here to see today's update on Marcy. Pray for/from Marcy - The biggest blessing we have received is our covering in prayer and the opportunity to pray for others. How to Help - Shares ideas on how people have helped us and how anyone can help others in need. Comfort Food - One of our biggest blessings has been dinners brought by friends and neighbors. Email Journal -To help communicate the blessings that have come with God's promise to beat this disease and to pass on some details of our experiences, we have written a series of emails and sent them to family and friends. This is a chronological list of the emails we sent and a chronicle of our journey. It also keeps Marcy from having to tell the same stories over and over and makes sure we don't leave anything out when we talk to friends. The frequency of emails decreased when we started doing our daily updates. Our Blessings - So many good things have come from beating this disease, it's hard to list them all here. Here's a good start. Bible Verses - Bible verses that we have found inspirational and helpful. Links directly to an online Bible. Books - Prior to the diagnosis, Marcy was not a very eager reader. Once she knew she needed to know more, she began reading a few books at one time. Here is a description of our book and a list of the books Marcy found most uplifting and helpful. This page links you to other sites where you can purchase the books. The Column - Links to a page that indexes a series of columns we have written for The Tennessean to help readers help people in need.
|
