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Kay Waldron

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Dear Pacific and Community Friends:

On behalf of Pacific University’s School of Graduate Psychology (SGP), we ask that you please take a moment to read Kay Waldron's story. Kay was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (more commonly referred to as ALS) soon after her announced retirement earlier this Spring. Kay was an invaluable part of everyday operations for over 20 years for all of our students, faculty, staff, and community partners. Kay and her husband Bob envisioned their retirement together as carefree, relaxed, and searching for ways to entertain and busy themselves. They were looking forward to trips to their beach house and extended visits with their grandchildren in Hawaii and California. With this recent diagnosis, ALS has upended their lives and they are trying to make all necessary accommodations and adjustments for this new realization. Almost all diseases are unexpected, disruptive, and very expensive. ALS is no exception. Recently, Kay was fitted for a wheelchair. This wheelchair will help tremendously in her efforts of maintaining some degree of mobility and independence. Unfortunately, the out-of-pocket cost for this customized wheelchair is over $6000. The family now needs to purchase a van to transport Kay and her wheelchair. The Forest Grove home they have lived in for 30+ years is a 2-story home with all the bedrooms located upstairs. The family is faced with considering whether to make substantial home renovations or strategize other possible alternatives. The unforeseen expenses are quickly piling up for Kay and her family.

Please consider supporting our dear friend and her family through these difficult times by making a donation.

Thank you.

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Visit our CaringBridge website we’ve set up for Kay (https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kaywaldron).  We hope this site will act as a place for regular health updates,  so visits with friends and family can be focused on enjoying each other’s company. We appreciate all the kind words, meals, and company we have already received. Your love and support has been a blessing as our family faces this challenge. Below is my mom’s diagnosis story as written by my dad. 

Summer finally appeared in the Calendar and plans for how to spend our time with grandsons set to visit for a few weeks, sat at the back of our minds. Kay and I had been talking about her retirement for some time (I had already been a deadbeat for a few years—circumstances forced on me,) and Kay planned on a more traditional but short route. We had not made any specific plans.  As it became clear, our desires were going to conflict with the university’s calendar, and it was time to go. It would be short notice, but Kay recognized she was not indispensable. Kay “pulled the trigger” in April and waived good bye to twenty plus years at the University. With some urging from family Kay, made a doctor appointment hoping to determine the probability of getting her knees “fixed”. She never wanted to spend the time required while recovering from such surgery and thus began the journey down a path no one expected. The chronology gets muddled for me (writer,) like stirring creamer in your coffee, the beginning is easily recalled, the rest swirls and eddies until memory blends and moves facts and appointments into a single image.  What seemed like eternity between appointments we muddled through the Kaiser system. Kay assuring us all it was probably “an impingement in her neck”, visits with a massage therapist for relief from symptoms, a reticent physical therapist, we finally got to the neurologist. The unhappy result was a diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It is very rare, untreatable, but relatively painless. The disease attacks everyone of its victims differently, but its methodology is consistent; it attacks upper and lower neurons that help control muscle movement and muscle strength and Kay’s showed up in her arms, upper back, hands, tongue, and jaw.  With 20/20 hindsight recognition of the advancement of the disease is clearer. What we all assumed was joint and aging issues were probably something else. But that does not matter anymore. It is sobering, to think back on the time from the first of May (retirement) to the end of July (diagnosis); and the addition of accoutrements, failed experiments, routines to make the house accessible, life more meaningful, and a meal more enjoyable (now). Right now I will leave you to consider the challenges Kay faces. Personally, when I hear someone say it was “a life changing experience” they haven’t a clue. It is hard to not be cynical so occasionally I may fall into that pit as I post updates; I hope you will forgive me. This is an expensive disease, so we expect some lifestyle changes and I may rage against them; I hope you will forgive me. It is an insidious dignity robbing disease and I will curse the circumstances and momentarily become self-absorbed; I hope you (and Kay) will forgive me. Bob
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    School of Graduate Psychology
    Organizer
    Hillsboro, OR
    Robert Waldron
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