It can take a long time for a person to be diagnosed with ALS, as doctors will want to consider other possible causes of symptoms before arriving at the conclusion of something as rare and serious as ALS.ĪLS is a progressive neuromuscular disease causing the degeneration of motor neurons, which control the ‘voluntary' muscles in the body. Patients are diagnosed with ALS based on their case history and tests designed to rule out other possible causes of their symptoms. An EMG is a critical test as it can reveal abnormalities in the electrical activity of the motor neurons and muscles. The neurologist took a detailed case history and performed an EMG (electromyography) test. The doctor initially ordered a blood test and, when it came back normal, she referred me to a neurologist. I didn't have a regular family doctor, so last January I saw a doctor at a walk-in clinic. I wondered if I had had a stroke or a brain tumor that was causing this change to one side of my body.
It seemed that my whole right side was becoming weaker, despite the fact that I'm right-handed and my right side had always been my stronger side.
At the gym, I would test the strength of my right arm versus my left arm and my right leg versus my left leg. Then I started noticing that my legs were becoming weaker. I thought maybe I was dehydrated or had a vitamin deficiency. I would get cramps in my abdomen or in my calf muscles, or my arm or fingers would occasionally twitch. I was also getting a lot of muscle cramps and fasciculations (muscle twitches). For example, when I had difficulties using a can opener, rather than thinking my fingers were getting weak, I blamed it on the can opener! I discounted the weakness even as I thought it was problematic. I had some weakness in my right shoulder, arm, and hands. My first noticeable symptoms of ALS came around September, 2012. I hope people can learn a bit about this mysterious and life-changing condition. People may associate ALS with Lou Gehrig or the famous physicist Stephen Hawking, but mostly it affects ordinary people who, because of the debilitating nature of the disease, are often not seen or heard by the public. I am also making family, friends, coworkers, and anyone else I come across, aware of my ALS diagnosis. On October 20, 2013, I will be participating in a 5K walk to raise money for the ALS Society of Canada. I may be weakened, but I can still do things and contribute to this world. While I don't consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth, I am still lucky to be alive. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth." In his famous 1939 speech, given before 62,000 fans at Yankee Stadium and only two weeks after he had been diagnosed with ALS, Gehrig said, "Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. ALS is a dreadfully debilitating disease, made famous by the Hall of Fame baseball player Lou Gehrig, who died of ALS in 1941. You can follow Mark on Twitter July 15, 2013, a few days after my 46 th birthday, I was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).
You can contribute to Mark's Walking For ALS campaign here.