That fierce instinct to protect our children, which most parents will understand, sang-out to me in those first few days of being (mis)diagnosed with ALS. The idea that I’d be around to support my children as they travel the highs and lows of life was now clearly an assumption I’d been making. The next trial they were about to face was losing their father.
DIAGNOSIS, STRATEGIES TO HELP: Double-check appointments, make sure the right tests are being booked and always ask questions to establish your options. Some healthcare systems are extremely under-resourced, and so mistakes can happen and delays occur.
DIAGNOSIS, STRATEGIES TO HELP: There are plenty of treatments, therapies and approaches to curing/treating illnesses that sit outside of mainstream medicine and if your life is on the line, then all options are on the table.
DIAGNOSIS, STRATEGIES TO HELP: Chances are, receiving the news of a serious threat to your health will prioritise what’s important to you in your life. Be active in this process – as I discovered, if you suddenly realise you’ve been entertaining meaningless crap, you now have permission to drop it.
DIAGNOSIS, STRATEGIES TO HELP: Immediately after being (mis)diagnosis as having ALS, our biggest dilemma was how to tell our young children, nine & seven. How would we ease them in to this new picture; prepare them for losing a parent and at the same time protect them from any sudden anxiety?