Zoning out

[Clearwater AL]

I very seldom post on these sub-Forums but I do read them. That was my shocker too. I'm still very mobile but I finally gave into a walker. At my last clinic appointment the doctor turned to Ann, not me, and asked... "Is he still driving?" Fortunately she caught on quick and said, "Seldom." I jumped in real quick with a question about something else.

Yes, this is a tough one.

 

[soonerwife]

Giving up driving is a very difficult one... I knew it was going to be a really hard step for my PALS.

When I felt it was unsafe, I had a conversation with him about it. I told him I was sure he was fine but what if you have an accident? Even if it isn't your fault, you may get blamed. For one thing, my PALS couldn't explain to an officer what happened... He has Bulbar Onset.

I also told him that I really hated this and didn't want him to have to stop driving but if he had an accident, most likely we would get sued for everything we had because of ALS.

Can you imagine if you had to go to court and try to explain it wasn't their fault months or years down the road and they had progressed even more?

I didn't even get to the part with him about what if someone get's injured or worse if he had an accident.

Ugh, this disease really sucks!

 

[pittsburghgal]

My husband, Frank, had a really tough time giving up driving. He insisted on driving whenever we went out and he thought that he was driving fine but he could not use the turn signal or put on the headlights or windshield wipers. His ability to turn the steering wheel quickly was very limited and other drivers were often honking at him. I told him that it wasn't safe and stopped going with him in the car when he was driving but he would just drive by himself. I asked his brother to talk to him and he still insisted that he was fine.

When we went to our ALS clinic appointment and I asked his neurologist if it was OK for him to still be driving. The doctor had a look of shock since I'm sure he couldn't believe that he was still driving. He calmly said to Frank that his driving was a tremendous liability and that if he caused an accident that we could lose everything. Luckily, this worked because he never drove again but I know he was very sad about this.

Sharon