- Joined
- Jul 29, 2017
- Messages
- 3,933
- Reason
- PALS
- Diagnosis
- 07/2017
- Country
- US
- State
- OR
- City
- Southern Oregon
I’ve read people on this forum saying “progression is slow until it’s not”. I’ve also heard stories about people diagnosed with ALS/ MND who look back and realize they had inklings of their disease years before diagnosis.
My own experience is that I may have had some signs of ALS a few years before actual diagnosis. My progression has been overall very slow, but the last several months, it appears to be speeding up, particularly in my hands, where the functional losses are quite apparent and mounting by the week.
I know progression isn’t linear and it can slow down, speed up, and even plateau rather unpredictably.
My theory is that the fewer viable motor neurons that remain for a given region (e.g. hands), the more noticeable the losses become and the progression seems to accelerate. For example, if someone has 1000 healthy neurons and loses 5, they won’t notice much change, if at all. However, if they have 10 healthy neurons and lose 5, the change is extremely noticeable. So it would follow that disease progression (assessed by functional loss) might seem to speed up over time as the number of healthy neurons remaining decreases.
Does that theory sound plausible? I’m curious what others think, and if others have noticed an apparent increase in their rate of functional losses over time.
My own experience is that I may have had some signs of ALS a few years before actual diagnosis. My progression has been overall very slow, but the last several months, it appears to be speeding up, particularly in my hands, where the functional losses are quite apparent and mounting by the week.
I know progression isn’t linear and it can slow down, speed up, and even plateau rather unpredictably.
My theory is that the fewer viable motor neurons that remain for a given region (e.g. hands), the more noticeable the losses become and the progression seems to accelerate. For example, if someone has 1000 healthy neurons and loses 5, they won’t notice much change, if at all. However, if they have 10 healthy neurons and lose 5, the change is extremely noticeable. So it would follow that disease progression (assessed by functional loss) might seem to speed up over time as the number of healthy neurons remaining decreases.
Does that theory sound plausible? I’m curious what others think, and if others have noticed an apparent increase in their rate of functional losses over time.