Index finger first, then speech, and now swallowing..what next?

[Hoping4cure]

My mom (diagnosed MND 11/2007) had her index finger losing strength. Last year she started having difficulty with her speech. She still manages pretty good with her speech, but last 3-4 months she started having difficulty swallowing.
During this week's visit, Dr. indicated that she could stop eating soon (few months), and she may not be able to swallow anything at all after that.

what should I expect next? and is there anything I could try differently?

Hoping for the cure..

 

[asantiago]

Very sorry to hear about your mom. Are you working with the MDA? The MDA can offer a wide range of support for her future needs.

My best advice is to encourage your mom to get a feeding tube asap once she has real difficulties eating. The inability to swallow will lead to dehydration and weight loss which can be detrimental to a person that already has physical disabilities.

A feeding tube will help her maintain her strength. As swallowing difficulties increase, eating will become a huge chore and take a lot of time and energy. It may be difficult for her to make the move to get one. For my mom it was admitting she wasn't going to get any better. My mom waited way to long to get hers and regretted not getting it sooner.

Best of luck to you and your mom.

 

[awhipple]

I too am sorry to hear about your mom. I would like to invite you to visit http://www.als.net to learn more about the research being done by the ALS Therapy Development Institute. There are a ton of great resources that we extend to patients and families living with ALS. Some of those things are a quarterly patient conference call, webinar, our online forum (a place where you can ask care-related or research questions), and more! Also, our nurse consultant, Mary Beth Geise, has been helping ALS patients for nearly 30 years. She has created a feeding tube video that is very helpful!

I am the Midwest Regional Director. I would welcome the opportunity to share with you what our team of 30+ researchers are doing to find an effective therapeutic for ALS.

 

[Hoping4cure]

Thank you. I will check it out. My mom is in India (Bangalore). If there is anything of remote promise here, I could get her here in a heart beat.

Will check out als.net as well.

Thanks again.

I want to believe in miracles..

hoping for cure.