Xandwiched

I have this goofy indulgence, where I sometimes consult a magic eight ball on the internet. Pretty sure I have mentioned this before...I found this eight ball ages ago, and while the internet got fancy and speedier, and Eight Ball Apps came into existence, I continue to be very partial to  this particular  eight ball and its associated website. Silly, I know. It's very grouchy and glum with me lately. And every time I ask it a question and it comes back with some negative answer, I vow to stop visiting, but then I come back anyway, because my hope is slow to extinguish.

I have an aunt who lives about 45 minutes away from us. She is above 70 and lives alone. She has always been very independent-minded, and she never had children. A few years ago, her husband, my uncle, passed away from lymphoma complications. She is mostly retired now; she was a veterinarian specializing in at-home euthanasia, when she was still working. Over the past year, she has been having a lot of problems with her hands. At first she thought it was because Raynaud's Disease - which she has - but over time, she began to think that it was more than cold hands and circulation. She stopped working, because she stopped being physically able to administer drugs to animals. The problem was somehow more muscular than circulatory. She just didn't have strength and dexterity in her fingers anymore. She began to see a Neurologist for testing and she told me, "I think I know where this is going - ALS." I knew immediately that ALS = Lou Gehring's Disease = serious. S...