First, Annette Farmer noticed she was tripping occasionally in 2009, as she worked her shift as a nurse in Florida. A few months later, her foot wouldn’t raise as she jogged along the beach. As a nurse, she could rationalize the muscle weakness to a herniated disc years before.
Then her voice started to change, too. Her patients picked up on that first.
“As I was working with patients, I could see, at first they thought I had an accent,” Annette said. “Then I could tell it was getting a little bit more difficult to form words. I decided,even as a nurse, something must be going on.”
Her family doctor urged her to see a neurologist. Early tests indicated ALS, but her friends urged her to go to Mayo Clinic, for a second opinion…
“Sure enough, it was confirmed,” she said. She and her ex-husband, a physician, have two adult children, and have just welcomed their first grandson. He’s not the only excitement.
On Sept. 4, 2010, just weeks after Mayo confirmed her diagnosis, Annette married anesthesiologist Richard Hackim. They celebrated their first anniversary at their Cascade Township home last week.
The couple met in a Florida hospital operating room — she was the nurse, he was the new anesthesiologist. “It was love at first sight,” Annette said, smiling broadly.
Two years ago, the new couple invested in an Ohio farm, and spend nearly every weekend at the 300-acre farm, a four-hour drive from Grand Rapids.
In the meantime, Annette has struggled to cope with her growing infirmities. The former ballerina and snow skier now wears an ankle brace and leans on a cane — for any distance, she resorts to a wheelchair. “I’m working to be independent, as far as eating and dressing. I can still drive.” But the biggest blow is in her speech.
“The hardest thing has been not being able to communicate. I’ve had lots of friends and enjoy talking to people. It seems to be the most frustrating,” Annette said. And after a year and a half of living in France, she appreciated red wine… until now.
“I can’t even take a sip without it really affecting my speech,” she said. At 52, she struggled to adjust to the vagaries of the disease.
“For the longest time — I think it was partly denial — I wouldn’t read any of the literature,” Annette said. “Every time I did, I would break down.” Gradually, though, her mind and attitude made an adjustment. She’s entered a Phase 3 clinical trial, and praises the care she has received at the ALS Clinic in Grand Rapids.
“Now, it’s just strange. All of a sudden, my mind has changed,” she said. “I’m learning to go out there and try to help other people.”
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