ALS Patient Turns To MDA For Help
MDA Telethon Airs This Weekend On Channel 5
POSTED: 11:00 am EDT August 31,
2009
UPDATED: 6:05 pm EDT August 31,
2009
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BOSTON -- Dr. Deborah Goessling spent her adult life as a special needs educator. Never did she imagine that one day she would be the one in need of MDA's services. 
Watch ReportGoessling, wife, mother of three sons and a professor at Providence College, was living the "American Dream" until everything changed in 2006."I would hear this, 'slap slap slap' of my left foot when I walked, and I said, 'that sounds weird. That doesn't sound (right). Maybe I should go to the doctor about that,'" she said."She had a fall at work, actually, where she broke her arm and we couldn't figure out why she fell. One doctor said you should go to a neurologist," her husband, Daniel Goessling, said."Once they eliminate all the other possibilities, you are stuck with the ALS diagnosis," Deborah Goessling said.Wanting a second opinion, her doctors referred her to MDA."We didn't know what to do, and he said to go to the MDA clinic at Mass General if you don't really think this is correct," Deborah Goessling said.But the ALS diagnosis was correct, and the Goesslings had to decide what they were going to do."You can't really know right away how you should organize your life and she we go off and spend down the 401(k) and go on a trip around the world right away or what should you do?" Daniel Goessling said. "But what we did was she wanted to keep working, and we sort of organized our life so she could keep going into Providence.""Debbie broke the news to me. Well, you can imagine as a mother ,I tried so hard to control myself because she didn't need me crying," Deborah Goessling's mother, Norah Peters, said. "She certainly did. She needed support and I was just devastated."Deborah Goessling has devoted her life to special education -- first as a classroom teacher and more recently educating teachers how to work with special needs students."Hopefully I can get them to see through my disability things that they may need to do for their students," Deborah Goessling said."Well, anyone can be a teacher, but to be a special Ed teacher you need something very special," Norah Peters said.Although her diagnosis was hard to face in the beginning, Deborah Goessling said the MDA has been a great help."So, I just think this is wonderful that MDA can fund the research and the ALS clinic," Deborah Goessling said. "And the other things like the support group and the equipment because those mean a lot, too.""I think that we are very lucky that a lot of the research in ALS happens right around here so we get to go to the clinic where the research happens," Daniel Goessling said. "And so you get a nice confidence in the Boston area that the care is good and if something, and if the miracle, happens that everyone wants, that we will be the first to know."The MDA Labor Day Telethon will be broadcast on Channel 5 starting Sunday at 9 p.m. and continuing on Monday until 6 p.m.
Watch ReportGoessling, wife, mother of three sons and a professor at Providence College, was living the "American Dream" until everything changed in 2006."I would hear this, 'slap slap slap' of my left foot when I walked, and I said, 'that sounds weird. That doesn't sound (right). Maybe I should go to the doctor about that,'" she said."She had a fall at work, actually, where she broke her arm and we couldn't figure out why she fell. One doctor said you should go to a neurologist," her husband, Daniel Goessling, said."Once they eliminate all the other possibilities, you are stuck with the ALS diagnosis," Deborah Goessling said.Wanting a second opinion, her doctors referred her to MDA."We didn't know what to do, and he said to go to the MDA clinic at Mass General if you don't really think this is correct," Deborah Goessling said.But the ALS diagnosis was correct, and the Goesslings had to decide what they were going to do."You can't really know right away how you should organize your life and she we go off and spend down the 401(k) and go on a trip around the world right away or what should you do?" Daniel Goessling said. "But what we did was she wanted to keep working, and we sort of organized our life so she could keep going into Providence.""Debbie broke the news to me. Well, you can imagine as a mother ,I tried so hard to control myself because she didn't need me crying," Deborah Goessling's mother, Norah Peters, said. "She certainly did. She needed support and I was just devastated."Deborah Goessling has devoted her life to special education -- first as a classroom teacher and more recently educating teachers how to work with special needs students."Hopefully I can get them to see through my disability things that they may need to do for their students," Deborah Goessling said."Well, anyone can be a teacher, but to be a special Ed teacher you need something very special," Norah Peters said.Although her diagnosis was hard to face in the beginning, Deborah Goessling said the MDA has been a great help."So, I just think this is wonderful that MDA can fund the research and the ALS clinic," Deborah Goessling said. "And the other things like the support group and the equipment because those mean a lot, too.""I think that we are very lucky that a lot of the research in ALS happens right around here so we get to go to the clinic where the research happens," Daniel Goessling said. "And so you get a nice confidence in the Boston area that the care is good and if something, and if the miracle, happens that everyone wants, that we will be the first to know."The MDA Labor Day Telethon will be broadcast on Channel 5 starting Sunday at 9 p.m. and continuing on Monday until 6 p.m. Copyright 2009 by TheBostonChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
