Background

I will write a little bit more about our ALS journey for the sake of completeness. My PALS is 59 years old. He was diagnosed with ALS when he was 54 years old. Looking back, the first symptom appeared about 2 years before that when he developed a foot drop on his right foot. Before that he was an active normal guy. At the time of his diagnosis in Nov 2009, the neuro said my PALS would live for about another 33 - 44 months. Right after the diagnosis, the neuro sent him for a sleep study. He got a Bipap in January 2010, and started using it whenever he slept. He started using a cane around the same time and switched to a walker around April 2010. He got a PWC in December of 2010. He got a feeding tube in March 2011 because his FVC was about 55% and the neuro felt this was a good time to get the tube. Around the same time he went for a swallow study and they found he swallowed very well, he would tuck his chin when he swallowed. He was still getting all his nutrition eating normally. More later...