Mark your calendars and register to attend the 2024 launch of the Hummingbird Ale, created in collaboration with Ales for ALS, ALS-TDI, and Starr Hill Brewery! This year's launch event will take place on Saturday, November 9, from 3-5pm at the Dairy Market location of...
On occasion I forget that I have ALS. More accurately, I forget that I have significant ALS-related disabilities. A prime example occurs when I try to speak after I have been writing for a while. I open my mouth, fully expecting to speak with the same fluency I have...
As you might imagine, my notions of work and purpose changed radically when I retired prematurely due to ALS. I had spent my adult life describing my work as a vocation, because I derived a deep purpose from my role as a nurse and as a pediatrician. I experienced a...
This morning I made William laugh using eyegaze. This is very good news. My ability to be understood these days, even by those closest to me, is dicey at best. The weakened muscles of my face and mouth limit comprehensible articulation, and weakened breathing limits...
In a post titled Seeking Wisdom: Purpose and the TurboCharged Life, published in February, I introduced the ALS-TLS. The “TLS”, or turbocharged living scale, is a 12-item questionnaire meant to track personal growth, or flourishing in people affected by ALS (available...
This article, written by Jim and Peggy Plews-Ogan, was published by the University of Notre Dame's Center for Social Concerns and their Virtues and Vocations publication. You can view the original article online. On December 2, 2021, our lives cracked open. Jim was...
My friends tell me they also have trouble sleeping through the night. Age, they say, or their bladder, or the dreaded foot cramps that send them hopping to the kitchen for mustard. Sleep woes are common among the ALS crowd. Impaired mobility aggravates muscle...
To my surprise and delight, I believe I may have developed a following of regular readers. A tiny, loyal readership. You know who you are. You are the kind souls who ask about the next post, adding that you have missed hearing from me. “No pressure,” you say, “we...
Peggy will soon publish her most recent scholarly article, entitled “Changing the paradigm: practical wisdom as true north in medical education”. It will appear in a special issue of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. In the article Peggy explores the...
The Hummingbird Fund is proud to be a co-sponsor of the upcoming documentary film screening of "Go On, Be Brave," presented by The Team Drea Foundation. The screening will take place on Saturday, September 23, at 7 p.m. at the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville, Va....
Today, we mark two years since our beloved Jim passed away. Our Plews-Ogan family, including Rowan and baby Phoebe, Erin and Hal, and Will and Monika, are gathering for the weekend as we will every year. This year, we’re in Minneapolis. The time together has given us...