Good Fingers

I've been having a lot of trouble with my left arm and shoulder over the last couple of days. It all started sometime last Monday, where my whole left side simply refused to function properly. I could move my arms and shoulder, but it was slow, lagging, uncoordinated. It got better on Tuesday and Wednesday, but last night it started to be troublesome again, and this morning while doing Range of Motion exercises, I was very stiff on my left side.

This is the way with ALS in my version. Failure of the muscles doesn't happen suddenly, or in a straight line. It starts with stiffness, clumsiness. Then it progresses to weakness and loss of ability. Then end result of the progressive weakness is total failure. For me, it has consistently started on my left side, then progressed to the same muscles on my right side. My right arm is stiff and clumsy these days, and painful too. My right side is officially joining my left in the ALS dance.

The odd thing is that even with complete failure in my legs, I can still move my toes in both my feet. Admittedly that movement is getting weaker and weaker, but it's still there. I can't explain why all the other muscles in my legs are finished, yet the one small muscle set which moves my toes in a scrunching motion is still functioning, better on the right than on the left. It's just the way it is with this odd illness.

In my arms, I am hoping that the whole "toe" thing happens with my fingers. Even though they shake, even though they may be weak, I am hoping they will type until the very end. As my speech weakens, I will find more of my voice in the keyboard. For now, I am good enough. I want to be that way for a long time to come.