My weekend with Denny

I will go back to Friday, 2 weeks ago. Denny had gone in to pick up his braces for his legs. I was all worried on how he was going to take the news. I called him to see how he was doing and he said he was really happy because he would be able to walk better. As Denny explains this to me the messages from his brain to his legs are getting scrambled and this makes it hard for him to walk. The braces help with what they call foot drop. He is doing very well with them. Glad to see him walking around. He has been talking about going out for one more ride before he can’t ride anymore. Will keep you posted if this happens. We invited Diana and Denny over for the weekend; we made a small fire in the back yard and had a little cook out. We have to watch as he walks down the stairs as to not lose his balance, both his wrist are wrapped with an ace brace to help support his hands. Still able to use them, but with very limited mobility, he is able to write but with great difficulty. But this man is so full of life and just fits right in with his laughter and loving smile. Diana watching everything he does always worried about him as we all do. As much as my Denny does not like to hear it, this is hard on everyone. But I wish I had his strength I have always tried to be strong around him. But it is so hard to not want to just hold him and tell him over and over again how much he is loved so that he knows and never forgets this. By the comments that have come in I hope he sees that many people care and love him. And as I have said before and I will say it again, to know Denny is to love Denny!

My intro to the world of Denny Parsons

I met Denny years ago, a man so full of life and hopes and dreams. His pride is his family, his 3 daughters Jessica, Jackie and Megan. Denny would help out anyone who would ask. Always there to lend a hand. The one thing that would always make his day would be to make you smile. I remember going to the store with him and he would go up to perfect strangers and make them laugh and smile. He loves to see people full of life and smiling and not worrying about all the little problems of the world going on around them. Over the years I have grown very close to him, he is my best friend. We have shared laughs and the tears. When he started saying something was wrong, he had pains in his hand and was having some trouble using it he finally went to the doctors. They ran him through all kinds of test, nerve test, X-rays, blood work etc. I got the phone call with what they thought he had, ALS Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Which at the time I really did not know what it was. I immediately went to research and my heart just sunk to the floor. You see, ALS is “a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually lead to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.” They also say they have 3 -5 years from diagnosis. My Denny was diagnosed August 2006. Denny and his girlfriend Diana came over to our house after one of the many visits to the doctors. Denny looked into my eyes and told me he did not want to see me cry. Do you know how hard that is? But I did it for him. I will be writting about his life with all the good and the bad. I want the world to be aware of this disease as it is not as wildly known about as some of the others you hear about. We need people to be aware of this and for them to find a cure.