I'm not sure if I'm glad we watched this movie, or regretful. No, I think overall, the message that the documentary relayed was necessary, thought provoking and touching. I couldn't sleep the night that we watched it because I had so much to mentally and emotionally digest and make sense of. If you haven't watched it yet, you should. It's currently on Netflix...It's about an NFL football player, Stephen Gleason, who played for the New Orleans Saints. The documentary starts out detailing his football career and the love story of he and his wife. Some time after their marriage, he reported to his doctor that he had some spastic sensations throughout his body. A medical team then ran some tests and discovered he was experiencing the early effects of ALS, also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. It's an incurable disease and most patients die within 3 to 5 years of initial diagnosis. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. This, in turn, causes the degeneration of motor neurons, which eventually leads to death. The documentary takes its viewers through this journey and how it effected Steve and his family. He starts out walking funny, slurring his speech, then he moves to a wheelchair, has to get a gastric tube in order to eat, and eventually can't speak at all, can't control his bowels at all, gets a trach due to his inability to cough up mucus. Eventually he's left with the inability to move or control anything and everything, eventually, needs to be done for him... In the midst of his failing health he and his wife learn that they are pregnant, and so Steve decides to make a video journal for his son. In it, he talks about wanting to pass down the best of himself to his son. Steve is currently still alive but could die within a short amount of time, as he has lived past his life expectancy... It was amazing to see the care that his wife gave him and to see just how much his pain was also her pain. The most heartbreaking scenes were the ones in which they both got some bad news and they both just kind of sit and stare. And then all of a sudden they both break down, in tears. Not only was he given an early death sentence, but they were forced to go through years and years of his body slowly breaking down, to the point in which he's as helpless as a baby. He goes through ups and downs; some days he wishes he could just die and get it over with, other days (and always ultimately what he decides to do) he feels a surge of emotional energy to fight to live... This movie was a lot more effective than the bucket challenge. After Steve Gleason was diagnosed, he opened up a charitable organization that raised money to help improve the lives of people with ALS. The money raised sometimes went towards traveling and other adventures ALS patients wanted to experience before they died. 9/24/17
10 Weeks 6 Days Along
(Yes, I'm even counting the days). 10 Weeks and 6 days along. Yesterday evening John asked when we could tell the gender of the baby. I said 16- 20 weeks and he got all sad. Apparently he thought the gender could be detected at the end of the first trimester. He was pretty bummed. I WISH we could find out that early!... My nausea has been off and on, but yesterday I was nauseated most of the day. Usually eating helps, but yesterday it didn't so much. Today, I'm nauseated and eating helps, but it's pretty temporary. I'm actually pretty surprised- I thought that my nausea and vomiting would be a lot worse than it has been. I thought my gastritis would make it really bad. And my back has been feeling great! It hasn't felt this good in quite some time. I grateful for that! We're excited to be able to tell people we are pregnant, come the end of the first trimester. I've had to make a conscious effort to drink more and stay hydrated. I don't feel thirst, and haven't for years (except for a few times in the summer when I get really hot), so it's a struggle to remind myself and get myself to drink, especially when I'm nauseated. Overall, I'm doing really well! My sciatica nerve pain is almost all the way gone, too. ...John has been working a lot lately, picking up people's shifts and going to work meetings. And then he comes home and takes care of me, getting me drinks, cleaning, doing dishes, getting meals for us, etc. But I think he's REALLY enjoying the down time when he gets home. We've been watching lots of shows and movies. I think his favorite time with me is when we lounge around. With as much as he works, I can see why he enjoys it. He requested to have the last week in October off, so that we can take a trip to Cali and Oregon. But they didn't give it to him. We are pretty bummed about that. 9/26/17
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