Mark's Notebook


	Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. - Proverbs 16:8

Cruel irony -- Gehrig's disease expert stricken

San Francisco Chronicle

Monday 29 November 2004, 1:40 pm
Keywords: News Articles , Health Topics

By Carl T. Hall

Dr. Richard Olney first got interested in the neuromuscular disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, when the daughter of his favorite teacher in junior high school died of it.

In June, Olney, 56, regarded as one of the top ALS clinicians in the country, was diagnosed with ALS.

At first, Olney suspected the instability he began noticing in his right knee, and later a progressive weakening in both legs, was caused by compression of a disk in his spinal column. But after three surgeries failed to halt the early symptoms, Dr. Robert Layzer, Olney's colleague in the UCSF neurology department, confirmed that the culprit was ALS.

Despite the surgeries, the weakness spread to his arms. Lately it's noticeably affected his speech. It will, in all likelihood, keep getting worse, eventually making it difficult even to swallow, or breathe. Then it will end.

ALS is marked by the degeneration of select nerve cells, originating in the brain or spinal cord, that drive the muscles. One of its more unsettling characteristics is that it spares most parts of the brain, including the cortical neurons that underlie alertness and conscious thought. So patients get a front-row seat at their own demise.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/11/29/ALS.TMP&nl=top

Mark says:

My Uncle Marvin had this disease. He lost speech and other motor skills but remained quite alert.