Family History. Day Eight Begins

Now it's time to get serious. Family History.

My mom died when she was 50 years old.  Repeat 50. I was 21. That means I just had to deal with the 8th Mother's Day sans Mother and that ain't easy. She had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis for fourteen years. "What is that," you ask? It's a super gnarly, degenerative disease that kills the muscle and nerve cells in her body, sends your dad over the edge into hard core drug abuse and basically destroys the whole family unity thing. When I was in 9th grade we had to have her admitted to a nursing home. So you know that whole hard decision about your parents going to a nursing home that most 40, 50 and 60 year old's can't handle?  Been there done that. In ninth grade. 

Back to ALS.  "What's the cause?" You ask. No one really knows.  Maybe living on a military base, maybe cigarettes, maybe cooking with foil, maybe diet soda of which she sucked back a case a day. Maybe just breathing in and eating all these terrible toxic poisons that around us everyday.  Seriously, no one really knows.

"Is there a cure?" Short answer. No.  Long answer, also no.

Moving on.

My fiance's Dad weighs 300+ pounds and has raging blood sugar levels, high blood pressure and of course, high cholesterol.  He puts about 1/4 inch of butter on any piece of bread/pita/tortialla he eats. When I gingerly mentioned maybe using a little less butter (I don't know how it happened, the words just came out of my mouth) he said, "You know, you get old and you die." With a chuckle.  Now that he's made it to 60 with a few minor heart attacks (nothing serious he says) he's outlived his father, his grandfather, his wife's father and grandfather and is apparently now old and will die.  Lovely.

Our time on this earth is short and we don't have the answer to how short. Or how long. But I want to make everyday a good one and be here for a long time.  I want my children (or dogs) to have old parents, I want us to be grandparents, or grand aunts and uncles.  I don't want anyone to die at 50 and I sure as hell don't want ALS, Cancer or Diabetes and the more research I do, the more I realize these diseases are environmental. So we're doing our part to stay away from the hazardous foods that cause these diseases.

Now my fiance wants to go see Forks Over Knifes. Victory. The higher his level of awareness is raised, the more knowledge he has about conventional meat, cheese and cancer and sugar and diabetes, the better off we are.  One day at a time. And today is a brand new day.

And on a side note: my dad went to rehab and just celebrated his 3rd year of sobriety. Talk about one day at a time, man.