What Is ALS?
The ALS foundation describes it like this:
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.
Our description isn’t as formal or as pretty. We describe it as the “monster within”. ALS paralyzes your body little by little, until it eventually takes away your ability to breathe. But not until it takes away your ability to move, to talk, to walk, to give hugs or eat by yourself. You never lose your ability to think, see, smell or your feeling. So while you waste way in body that no longer works as it should, you are fully aware of it the entire time.
It is merciless.
To date, there is no cure. There is no treatments except for the management of symptoms.
The statistics are grim. In the first 3 years, 50% of those diagnosed lose their fight. Some 20% have five years, and 10% of people have lived longer.
The disease has a mind of its own, progressing in each individual differently and at different paces. It is one of the things that makes it so hard to treat, so hard to deal with, and so hard to figure out. Even the scholars of our time are baffled by ALS.
There are times where the disease “burns out” or stops progressing. There are a few that have outlived the statistics and have lived with this for many, many years. Modern interventions such as feeding tubes and ventilators help those afflicted live a longer life.
There are about 100,000 cases in the US, so it is considered a rare disease. But anyone who knows someone with ALS or has ALS doesn’t care much for the statistics.
What we all want is a cure.
There is active research for a cure. You can help by donating to the ALS foundation where the people there work tirelessly hoping to find a breaktrhough.
And you can pray. Pray for those with the disease, those left behind, the families fighting it, and the medical community for wisdom.
And remember, in this world you may be somene. But to someone, you are the world.
Hug your spouse, play with your children, take that vacation, dig in the dirt, and run barefoot in the grass, forgive someone who has hurt you and say sorry to someone you have hurt. We all have a number to our days. The blessing is in learning to live each one them to the fullest.
