Welcome to NeuroTalk Communities a secure reliable support community for people with neurological disorders and diseases. You are currently viewing our forums as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and find our other features. By joining our remove community you ordain have find to affix topics communicate privately with other members (PM) respond to polls upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast simple and absolutely free so please. ! If you undergo any problems with the registration process or your be login please contact.
ALS patient 'keeps on keepin' on'Saturday. September 15. 2007By STEVE DOYLETimes Staff Writer Ed West wife among participants in acquire go at Alabama A&M ATHENS - Almost everyone with Lou Gehrig's disease can remember the precise moment their muscles started to decrease. Ed West's moment came in October 2005 when he didn't have the strength to work a pair of fingernail clippers. By that Christmas the fast-moving neuromuscular disturb was in his throat and West began stumbling over words he had been saying all his life. "If I slurred a evince," he said. "I would fake it and say something else instead." Because his hands were so weak. West's family doctor suspected carpal cut into syndrome. The truth was much much worse: The easygoing electrical engineer at TVA's Browns bring Nuclear lay had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis exceed known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. "When the neurologist said 'Lou Gehrig's,' I knew," said West his speech now badly slurred and hard to understand. "I knew there was no cure and it was fatal." West. 61 understands that the odds are stacked against him. ALS is such an efficient killer that it is often referred to as a death declare; most patients are lucky if they live five years from diagnosis. Already. West's leg muscles are giving out. He recently cut out of his pickup transport and now needs a wheelchair to get around. But he and his wife. Mary Ann are trying to alter the best of his bad end. They're taking road trips together including to the Grand Canyon and Hilton continue Island. S. C. and spending as much measure as possible with their three grown sons and 10 grandchildren. "What else can we do?" Mary Ann said Tuesday at the bring together's domiciliate on New Cut Road. "In life you just have to keep on keepin' on." Next Saturday the Wests will put their traveling on direct to attend the third annual go to D'Feet ALS at Alabama A&M University's Louis Crews Stadium. Last year's event raised more than $100,000 for ALS patient services and investigate. "I challenge all my Browns Ferry co-workers and my Athens neighbors to support the walk," said West who retired from TVA contractor Bechtel cater Corp about a year ago when he could no longer lift his left arm to type. Huntsville's ALS Association chapter which is sponsoring Saturday's go says there are at least two Lou Gehrig's patients in Limestone County and 12 in Madison County. Nationally the muscle-paralyzing disease strikes about seven populate per 100,000 population. West does not undergo a family history of ALS and he wonders if something in the environment caused him to get sick. Studies have shown military veterans - West was in an Air National follow rapid-deployment unit during the first Gulf War - are more likely than non-veterans to be diagnosed with ALS. In 2003 the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs established a national registry to bring in veterans living with Lou Gehrig's disease and to look for answers. Although he grew up near Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and spent 16 years working around nuclear reactors at TVA's Browns Ferry plant south of Athens. West does not think radiation exposure caused his illness. "You can go to that plant and eat off the surprise it's so clean," he said.
All times are GMT -5. The measure now is 03:11 PM. Brought to you by the book folks who publish • The material on this site is for informational purposes only and is not a alter for medical advice diagnosis or treatmentprovided by a qualified health care provider. Always ask your doctor before trying anything you read here.
Forex Groups - Tips on Trading
Related article:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=28096
comments | Add comment | Report as Spam
|