Potter Daniel Christie met the Chapmans in August after coming to Fredericksburg to work at the LibertyTown Arts Workshop. He's become a steady source of support for the couple, helping out around their studio. 'He's just been a blessing," Trista said.



ALS slowing local potter down

Date published: 12/17/2006


By EDIE GROSS

HE SCARS ON PHIL CHAPMAN'S ELBOWS, chin and left wrist hint at an active childhood, one filled with soapbox derby fender benders and unscheduled flights over bicycle handlebars.

Once, when he was 8, he lost his balance on the ladder leading up to the high diving board, plummeting to the ground and fracturing his skull.

As an adult, Chapman tumbled off the roof of his Sophia Street house, slamming his chest onto a fence and shattering his ribs.

"So I could've been in one of these a lot earlier," he said recently, fingering the armrest of the wheelchair he's been using since August, a year after he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal condition also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

A Fredericksburg potter for more than 30 years, Chapman, 54, has lost much of the feeling in his hands over the last few months, hands that crafted everything from sturdy tree forts with his older brother to delicate raku vases in his Sophia Street pottery studio.

He walks with considerable effort, his weakened legs occasionally buckling under him unexpectedly.

And he's fallen on the stairs in his home several times, giving himself a perpetual bruise on his left knee.

He and his wife, Trista, vowed early on to fight the paralyzing disease, and they made good on that pledge, enrolling Chapman in a drug trial at the University of Virginia, turning to yoga and meditation to raise his energy levels, loading up on healthy foods and even pursuing alternative diagnoses.

Despite their efforts over the last year and a half, Chapman didn't get better.

His grip loosened, and he no longer trusted himself to help Trista with her pottery.

His speech slowed. Getting in and out of bed, in and out of the shower, became a struggle.

Late this summer, he and Trista made a decision: No more expensive, alternative treatments. No more fistfuls of pills each day.

No more drug trials. No more blood samples, urine tests and toxicology reports.

"Everything I have had has been stereotypically ALS," Chapman said.

ALS attacks the nerve cells in the body's brain and spinal cord, ultimately destroying a person's voluntary muscle movement. While the patient's mind remains sharp, the disease robs the body of its ability to move, speak, swallow and even breathe on its own.

At one point, Chapman had tested positive for Lyme disease and for high levels of lead in his blood--both conditions more treatable than ALS--and he briefly hoped the original diagnosis was wrong.

But the dietary supplements, antioxidants and vitamins he took to boost his immune system and flush contaminants from his body never made him feel any better.

In August, Chapman began using the manual wheelchair to get around his Sophia Street pottery studio. In October, the Virginia chapter of the ALS Association loaned him an electric one to use in his home next door.

"I can still walk somewhat. It's just really a matter of saving what's left," he said recently. "The bottom line to all this is you lose it eventually.

"I've gotten everything in order and I'm ready to let it all go if I have to," he said.

But a moment later, the fight's back in his voice.

"You never know what life is going to be like," he said, "but I have a feeling my life is going to be very long, just very difficult."

A helping hand
On good days, Chapman spins around the second-floor of Sophia Street Studios, answering the constant ring of the phone, getting after their dog, Abbey, and offering technical advice--both solicited and otherwise--to Trista and newest arrival, Daniel Christie.

"I tell them what they're doing wrong," Chapman said with a sly smile.

Christie, 24, was a student at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina in the spring when he studied under local potter Dan Finnegan, founder of LibertyTown Arts Workshop in Fredericksburg.

Finnegan offered Christie a job at LibertyTown and, in August, introduced him to the Chapmans as someone who could help with their Sophia Street pottery operation.

In return for studio space and round-the-clock advice, Christie has spruced up the pottery shop, helped Trista with her work and drafted plans to start selling the shop's artwork online.

"He's just been a blessing," Trista said.

Chapman had stopped firing his own labor-intensive pieces last December, and the gas kiln he'd built for himself sat dormant for nearly a year.

On Nov. 29, Christie cranked it up to 2,400 degrees, firing a batch of his own creations.

"Phil built the best kiln I've ever used," said Christie, who soaks up the couple's expertise.

"A lot of energy comes off Phil and Trista when they're together. We've gotten to be pretty close," he said. "We're always laughing."

Still, there are plenty of days when it's difficult to stay positive. One recent afternoon, Phil slipped and fell on the stairs that lead from the pottery studio to their backyard.

Trista couldn't lift him, but Christie scooped him onto his feet again. Since then, Christie said he tries to watch out for Chapman, especially when he's climbing stairs.

A donated lift, once it's hooked up, will help him get into the studio without using steps. And Chapman plans to start sleeping on the first floor of the house, once he's picked out a comfortable bed to put down there.

"That really upset me," Christie said of Chapman's fall. "I keep as much an eye on him as possible. But he doesn't want that. He wants to be able to do for himself. It's maddening for him."

It's maddening for Trista as well. Her inability to help him has brought her to tears more than once.

"I've never been involved in something like this where there's no hope," she said on a particularly difficult day. "It's not like saying, 'If we just get through this, it'll be all right.' It's never going to be all right."

Fighting exhaustion
The Chapmans helped start the Empty Bowl fundraiser in 2000 on behalf of the Rappahannock Council on Domestic Violence.

The eighth annual event next month may be the first that neither attends.

For Chapman, going out has become physically and mentally exhausting.

"A lot of times I feel tired, and I haven't done anything," he said recently. "I can hardly sit up sometimes."

For Trista, it's emotionally draining. She went to a party earlier this year with some friends.

"I was looking forward to it for weeks. Did my hair and everything," she recalled. "But when I got there "

Naturally, she said, everyone asked after her husband.

"And I didn't have anything good to say," she said. "And then the tears were streaming. We do feel really, really lucky because we have so many wonderful friends, but it's hard."

More than 300 supporters attended a fundraiser for Chapman and a retrospective of his work in January, an event that raised nearly $60,000 for his care--money that's becoming more important as his mobility diminishes.

This summer, his friend John Stoddard organized a fundraising picnic at his home in Corbin, attended by a large group of old friends.

About 30 friends and family joined the couple in October for the Walk to D'Feet ALS in Richmond. Their team, Flippy's Fans, after Chapman's childhood nickname, raised about $6,500 for ALS research.

Chapman said he tries to read up on stem cell research and he's encouraged by the national effort to find a cure for the disease.

"I just hope they hurry up," he said.

In his lowest moments, he considers how fortunate he is.

As difficult as the last 16 months have been, he said, he can't imagine having gotten this far without his wife, his family, his friends and the network that has supported him.

"I'm so privileged. I can't feel bad about things. I always come back to that," he said. "I have it pretty good. For what's happened to me, I have it pretty good."



To reach EDIE GROSS:540/374-5428
Email: egross@freelancestar.com
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2...ex_html?page=3

About 5,600 people each year are diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, according to the ALS Association. ALS attacks the nerve cells in the body's brain and spinal cord, ultimately robbing a person of their ability to move, speak, swallow and even breathe on their own.

For more information about ALS, visit these Web sites:

alsa.org, ALS Association

ninds.nih.gov, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health

medlineplus.gov, MedlinePlus, a project of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health

To support the Phil Chapman Benefit Fund, send donations to The Fredericksburg Athenaeum, 109 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401.