Dear Visitor,
Imagine being paralyzed, unable to speak or feed yourself. Imagine not being able to dial a phone, scratch your nose, or change the channel on the TV. It’s called the “locked-in syndrome.”
Now imagine caring for this person 24/7/60 from morning to night.
This was our life, written prior to and edited since Bryna's passing.
My name is Mel Solon. I'll be 78, July 2017, Bastille Day. My wife, Bryna, was 71. We met at a singles dance at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, got engaged three days later, and married three weeks later in Las Vegas, 50 years ago, March 2016.
On January 31 of 2014, our lives were changed forever when Bryna was diagnosed with ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS is a neuromuscular disease with no present cure or effective treatment.
She used a feeding tube to eat, and communicated with the use of a computer, either with a gyroscopic mouse or the blinking of her eyes.
Fortunately, her mind, spirit, and sense of humor were relatively unaffected, as those who had visited can attest.
Our hope was for Bryna to survive long enough for a cure to be found. While our miracle didn't manifest, she is definitely in a better place. I'm confident, also, that a cure will be found so that others, patients and caregivers, will not have to suffer from this terrible disease.
With help from hospice, I did everything I could to fulfill her wish to spend the time she had left in our home with me as her round-the-clock caregiver.
While stressful and frustrating at times, the spiritual nourishment I received for caring for Bryna made it easy to do my job both willingly and lovingly.
To help fund research to find a cure or effective treatment for ALS and MD (Muscular Dystrophy), click here to donate whatever you can at GoFundMe.com/BrynaALSBattle. Any amount will help.
You also can help, non-monetarily, by simply sharing our story through social media, and, if able, by putting us in contact with whomever you may know who can provide print or airtime.
If interested in informative and enlightening details, scroll to view In Pursuit of a Miracle, the whole story. We hope you find it not at all sad or depressing, but instead, very positive and uplifting.
Happy viewing.
Appreciatively yours,
Mel Solon
|