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ALS Walk 2011: Walk Because You Can

boo7382

By boo7382,
in Huddle Lounge

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boo7382 Rookie

boo7382

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Hello everybody,

As some of you know, and most of you don't know, my uncle has been suffering with ALS for a little over 3 years now. In the past year and a half, he has gone from limping, to walking with a cane, to now completely unable to walk and confined to a wheelchair.

Throughout all of this, he has still managed to somewhat live his life to the fullest. When he was diagnosed, he knew that one day he would be in the state he is currently, so he went down to the Caymans, to Vegas, deep sea fishing with my pops in the keys, Skydiving, anything crazy you can think of he did.

After being put in the wheelchair, we have continued to go to many events. My uncle is possibly one of the coolest people I know and has a great taste in music. We went to the Marshall Tucker concert, Little Feat, Doobie Brothers and Chicago, pretty much anyone who has come to Charlotte in the past year that he has wanted to see. Lately he has started to sharply decline...some days he loses the ability to speak. We got him an iPad which has an app where you can type in what you want to say and it speaks for you, but he does not like to use it, I think he is embarrassed.

Now to the point of my post. We walked in my uncle's honor in 2009 in the Charlotte Walk to Defeat ALS, didn't do it in 2010 for family reasons, and we will be doing it again this year. I am writing this to either ask for a small donation to my page for the walk, or for you to come out and walk with us on April 30th at Ballantyne Corporate Park as a part of Harlan's Heroes, or as an individual walker.

If you feel you would like to make a donation (as low as $5 and on up from there), please PM me and let me know and I would be happy to give you the link to my walk page where you can make a *tax deductible donation to this year's walk which will be contributed to ongoing research into a cause and cure for this fatal disease. I don't feel comfortable posting my walk page on here for everyone to see, as it has some personal info. Also, a lot of employers will match donations up to $100, please let me know if you would like me to search for your employer.

If you feel you do not want to donate, its all good, but please keep my uncle and our family in your thoughts and prayers as we go through the hardest time we have had since his diagnosis.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions, or if you know someone with ALS, I would be happy to fill you in on what to expect. I will be posting this on my Facebook page as well with a direct link if you want to go through there instead.

Thanks, everybody....and Go Panthers!!!

Here are some facts off the bat:

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. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.

As motor neurons degenerate, they can no longer send impulses to the muscle fibers that normally result in muscle movement. Early symptoms of ALS often include increasing muscle weakness, especially involving the arms and legs, speech, swallowing or breathing. When muscles no longer receive the messages from the motor neurons that they require to function, the muscles begin to atrophy (become smaller). Limbs begin to look "thinner" as muscle tissue atrophies.

Although the cause of ALS is not completely understood, the recent years have brought a wealth of new scientific understanding regarding the physiology of this disease.

While there is not a cure or treatment today that halts or reverses ALS, there is one FDA approved drug, riluzole, that modestly slows the progression of ALS as well as several other drugs in clinical trials that hold promise.

In 90 to 95 percent of all ALS cases, the disease occurs apparently at random with no clearly associated risk factors. Patients do not have a family history of the disease, and their family members are not considered to be at increased risk for developing ALS.

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Hawk

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lol, na, the fastest way to make money on here would be charging for pictures of my feet and or boobs.

Sending now, thanks buddy :)

god I hope you mean you're sending the pictures!!!!!

thanks...and good luck!

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