In the year 2012, a woman named Susan Hammack died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. She passed away at age 64 and ended up being diagnosed 2 and a half years prior. Hammack’s disease got to the point of hospice in her own home and put on a medical respirator to help her breath. Many of her symptoms included: twitching or cramping muscles, slurred speech or trouble projecting her voice, loss of motor skills in hands and arms, tripping and falling, dropping objects, and impaired use of limbs. Lou Gehrig’s Disease is characterized by the continuous progression of the breakdown of the spinal cord and the motor nerve cells in the brain. When the body’s motor neurons all discontinue sending pulses to the muscles, atrophy occurs (which is when your muscles are wasting away because of no use). This all causes major muscle weakness. According to John Hopkins Medicine, “ALS does not impair a person’s intellectual reasoning, vision, hearing or sense of taste, smell and touch. In most cases, ALS does not affect a person’s sexual, bowel, or bladder functions (ALS-Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, paragraph 1). Tanya Lewis of Live Science
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They may even differ from earlier to later stages. Early stage symptoms may include: increasing weakness in one limb (especially in a hand), difficulty walking, clumsiness of the hands, fasciculations (which are subtle like twitches under the skin), impaired speech, difficulty swallowing. Later stages include: weakening of other limbs (may be with twitching, muscle cramping, and exaggerated faster reflexes), problems chewing, swallowing, or breathing, drooling, and eventually paralysis (Neil Lava, 2015). ALS can be diagnosed in multiple ways such as laboratory tests, muscle and/or nerve biopsy, cerebrospinal fluid analysis (spinal tap), x-rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or electromyography (EMG) (ALS-Amyotrophic Lateral
They may even differ from earlier to later stages. Early stage symptoms may include: increasing weakness in one limb (especially in a hand), difficulty walking, clumsiness of the hands, fasciculations (which are subtle like twitches under the skin), impaired speech, difficulty swallowing. Later stages include: weakening of other limbs (may be with twitching, muscle cramping, and exaggerated faster reflexes), problems chewing, swallowing, or breathing, drooling, and eventually paralysis (Neil Lava, 2015). ALS can be diagnosed in multiple ways such as laboratory tests, muscle and/or nerve biopsy, cerebrospinal fluid analysis (spinal tap), x-rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or electromyography (EMG) (ALS-Amyotrophic Lateral