THANKS

From my understanding. It's a motor neuron disease, where the nerves and muscles are dying. Think of a bridge. On each end of this bridge are nerves. They talk back and forth to eachother..letting us move our arms, legs, fingers and toes..ect. Then think of a bomb destroying the bridge between these two nerves and the nerves fire to talk and no message is received, because the bridge is gone.

An AlS patient begins to feel profound weakness such as: falling, dropping a cup, slurring of speech and sometimes their muscles will start twitching, this is the nerves firing over and over to send the message but none are received. The twitching is usually felt after the weakness has set in. They will see atrophy(wasting of muscles..because muscles are dying) People end up in wheel chairs, and need feeding tubes, and vents to help them breathe, and are in danger of repiratory failure. They end up totally dependent on machines and others to live, but eventually the disease takes over.

People with ALS usually die within 2-5 years.
ALS has symptoms that mimic other diseases. Weakness is seen in many diseases(some not fatal)and twitching is seen in many diseases(also some not fatal).

Sometimes it takes up to a year to be diagnosed because doctors try to rule everything else out before a diagnosis is given, because it's a very rare disease, usually seen in males over 50. But lately it's being diagnosed in younger people. I don't know why though.

I've been reading about it over the past 5 months because I feared I had it, but I don't. It's a terrible disease. http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/frown.gif

Renee

Thanks for reply, I am being checked for AS and wasnt sure if this was the forum. ALS sounds very scary.

its one of the worst diseases you can get, not only is it a terminal illness, it kills you slowly and painfully. Its not just the physical pain, the emotional as well, for some the emotional aspect of it seems to be the biggest issue. your personality is never the same once you get it, i've seen how it changed my mom. I hope they find a cure for this horrible disease soon. peace.

My dad was dx with ALS in 2002. ALS does not usually affect your mind. Personality change is usually due to depression, anger, guilt and many other emotions a patient goes through when dx with ALS. Every case is different.

Visit alsa.org
This site will tell you everything you need to know.

God bless.

TxGirl~

How is your dad doing?

Renee http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif