Oct. 23, 2007 - After the walk

Thanks to everyone that donated, contributed and walked with our team. We had family that walked in cities at other ALS walks and others who created their own walk and walked at the same time as we did. Each of you share a special place in my heart. To try and express how your support makes me feel is an impossibility. Together our team has currently raised almost $9,000. The monies turned in at the walk have yet to be posted, but we expect the totals to be over $12,000.

For those of you who weren't at the walk, I'll try and provide a narrative description of the day. Our journey to the walk was a bit lengthy, because "we" didn't know where exactly at the park the walk was going to be. After touring the surrounding 3 mile radius of the park, we finally found our team. Of course, since they're friends, they expected nothing more from me. Once we arrived, we spent the time before the walk talking and taking group pictures. I'll forward these along once they've been sent to me, which I believe will be in a week or so.

During our group pictures Kelly took a tumble in a hole. Of course, Kelly being Kelly, rallied quickly and lead the team for the entire walk. For those that are concerned, she's alright, but extremely sore. We're hoping that there isn't any permanent damage.
The walk was suppose to be for 3 miles, but a6fter the first lap, the majority of the folks quit walking. I know that after one lap I was D O N E. The only person (of the hundreds attending) that walked the full 3 miles was Mackie (Darrin's partners wife). You could almost see the smoke coming of her feet because she moved so fast.

After the walk the team converged on the pizzas that were donated by Johnnie Brusco's and the ribs from Texas Roadhouse. I have to admit that I just needed to sit and used the ruse of eating pizza as my cover for near exhaustion. All the kids played in the space walk, had their faces painted and ran around like crazy loons.

Once I'd rested a bit, I met some of the other people that had ALS, several of whom I've been communicating with via email. Each of these people were able to give me amazing advice. I believe the most touching moment of the walk was after the majority of the people had actually left. Debbie Smith (of the Dream team - blue shirts and #1 fund raising team) asked to meet with me. Her advice touched me deeply. Even though this was the first time we had met her, we shared a bond that isn't easily defined. We had downloaded her story from the MDA telethon and since Chase had seen it, he had wanted to meet her. He'd even written a paper for school that had incorporated her story. We found it curious that this one person had seemed to have such an impact on Chase. Chase met her at the walk and talked with her. This was the first time since my diagnosis that Chase had really gotten emotional. He placed his Strike Out ALS bracelet on her arm and she told him, "Your mom is a fighter and that's what you need to be with this stupid disease." I'm sure there were other things shared between them, but this was what Chase remembered. We'll be contacting Debbie and hope to see her again soon.

It turns out that Kelly's fall wasn't the only thing we had to be concerned about. My friend Marcia who'd come from Chicago for the walk, had noticed what she thought was a a blister on her forearm Friday morning, had become inflamed, swollen and not so pretty by Friday night. Saturday morning it had spread even further into the surrounding tissue. After the walk, I took her to the minor medical and she was diagnosed with having a brown recluse spider bite. The doctor described the bite as being moderate to severe and treated it very aggressively. Marica had 3 injections before she left: an antibiotic, a steroid and tetanus. The doctor also prescribed 4 medicines to get filled after we left. One of these she had to do blood work for, to make certain she didn't have a certain gene, because if she did she would die if she took this medicine. The entire situation was surreal. I tried to take her mind off things by pointing out that if she'd wanted some alone time with me, she didn't have to go to such extremes. Marcia returned home Sunday night, saw her doctor Monday morning an6d also had the exterminators out. The bite seemed to be doing better, but now seems to be changing color. So she goes back to the doctor again today. The doctor here had told her that no matter how she was treated that it may not stop the tissue from dying. We're hoping that it's going to be getting better quickly. I'm going to try an add photos to the blog as well.