Stealing pieces...

Sometime earlier this year, I received an e-mail about an exhibit called Stealing Pieces, on display at Daley Plaza in Chicago. I was curious and so naturally I clicked on the link to see what it was about. There was a brief video that depicted what I can only vaguely recall as floating limbs. The idea was that little by little ALS steals pieces of our loved ones. Remarkable! Someone had accurately described what I had been experiencing for nearly a year.

The previous June I could still run, although my right foot seemed drop in an odd sort of way, but if I concentrated I could give it that extra lift so I didn't lose my footing. I also had a difficult time climbing the Dunns River Falls in Jamaica that summer, something I had done before with excitement, now frightened me.

In July I decided that my sense of balance would make riding my bike scary, especially since I had changed out my pedals years ago to allow my shoes to lock into them. It required a certain amount of skillful control when stopping that I wasn't sure I could muster.

In August the Atlantic Ocean swept me off my feet with each gentle wave; I literally could not stand in the moving water. I grew up riding the waves on these beaches, and on this particular summer day they were tame and forgiving, and yet I could not hold myself up.

Still, I remember laughing it off...I'm not sure who I was trying to convince that it was nothing to worry about...me, my friends, my family? Anyway, we had an appointment scheduled in late August to see a neurologist; we'll figure this out when we get home and fix it...right?