Thursday, June 01, 2006

My d'Feet ALS Walk Page

Earlier this year, my brother was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with a mild form of this disease in 1963. His story is not common to most people who are diagnosed with ALS. The expected survival time after diagnosis is around 6 years, but there is a significant variance around this expectation.

This was a shock to our family. My father (who is actually not my brother's father; my brother is actually my half brother) was diagnosed with CIPD about a year ago, which has similar symptoms to MS and GBS, but it is treatable (and certainly non fatal). After various IVIG treatments, he is now fine with only remnants of the old symptoms. We were all settling back in to normalcy when we learned about my brother. (ALS is a fatal disease; it is a neuromuscular disease that eventually attacks the diaphragm. It is a wicked disease. The mind is not affected at all by the disease... However it gradually loses control of the body)

The Columbus d'Feet ALS Walk will be held later this week. My brother has started a team there, and I joined that team today to try to help raise money not only to support the ALS association but also to give my brother the emotional support he needs right now.

If you can, please visit my d'Feet ALS walk page. It would be great if you could make even a small donation, join Team Kenny (even as "virtual walker"), or forward the page onto someone else you think could help. I'd really appreciate any help you could give.

Thanks.

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