ALS

LIFE with ALS

Once a patient is first diagnosed it is still very hard to see any symptoms. They are able to go along in their normal lives. Then they slowly lose control of certain muscles. They feel strange sensations in their muscles. One Victim said it feels like "anxious butterflies trying to get out from inside you". The muscles ripple inside of you as they die. This sounds so tragic and very sad.  They are able to live life with the help of others as well as different forms of life support, but eventually this is no longer an option. A person with ALS is able to live 12 years with life support but in the end it is not much of a life. You end up in a wheel chair dependent on others and machines for everything. As this story link that follows will tell you, one with ALS will end up like a "lifeless mummy".    

Read this story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/opinion/sunday/10als.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

Treatments

There is only one treatment for ALS, it is called Riluzole. It costs about $14,000 a year. Riluzole is used to slow the process of ALS motor neuron degeneration. Riluzole works by blocking the release of a compound called glutamate, which is believed to injure nerve cells.

 

Side Affects:

• nausea 

• stomach pain 

• low fever 

• loss of appetite 

• dark urine

•  clay-colored feces,

• jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes)

• fever and chills, flu symptoms

• body aches,

• chest discomfort and pains,

• dry cough,

• trouble breathing

• cough with yellow or green mucus

 These side affects are not all that can happen, different affects take place on different people.