TimberRT
New member
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2009
- Messages
- 3
- Reason
- Loved one DX
- Country
- US
- State
- Va
- City
- Whitacre
Not sure where to start and this is kind of a long story but here goes. My Dad died from ALS back in 95. He was diganosed in Sept. 94 and died the following July. At that time they told us there was a test for it but who really wanted to know? I always figured being the one most like my Dad I would get it. He had been part of the occupation troops in Japan in WW2 after the dropped the bomb.
Sure enough many years later at work my left hand just went numb one night and I reported it as the policy indicated. The safety person in charge took the report and told me she felt it was a repetitive motion injury to my elbow and Virginia didn't cover that under workmans comp which I knew. So I elected to contact an orthopeadic doctor and got my first visit to a neurologist. While doing the nerve induction we talked about family history and told him about the ALS. He also told me at the end of the visit the referring doctor was going to be puzzled and there were no signs of ALS.
I ended up going back for more tests and still no ALS. Then in 2008 the right hand just shut down on New Year's night while I was kicking back watching a movie and enjoying a night off that I had signed up to work but didn't have to. No warning just one minute working and then dead. Off the rest of the month and it just got better on its own though that was the next visit to the neurologist. By now though my youngest sister was having problems.
In May 2008 it happened again though it was the left hand this time. However I was already set up with the neurologists and got in there quicker this time. More tests, a lot of bloodwork and another MRI. Still nothing, no ALS and it again got better. However my sister has gotten worse and it was confirmed ALS. It would seem she had accumulated a lot of heavy metals in her system that they were trying to purge out for treatment. What is even more weird is that the family that lived next door where I had grown up as a child lost a family member to ALS years before my Dad died.
Now my sister was able to do some research into the family line but none of us is really flush with money and found that there have been family members in the past that have died from this. Some of these people go back aways and am not sure how she determined it was ALS.
So I guess I need comments and suggestions as to where to go from here. Is there something in the water that my sister drinks from her well that is making her more prone to this? The only thing they found with me was a very sight elevated level of arsenic, coming from the granite around where I live. I am also probably a little more active then her, work in a factory and raise goats so I'm always hauling around hay bales and 50 pound feed sacks. She worked at a computer when she was able. There has also got to be a better way to research family history without paying out a leg and arm for it.
My sister is on a new treatment I read about here Lutimax and she thinks its helping. It really broke my heart on my last visit. She was so scared of falling she only moved once from the couch to the kitchen table. Doesn't help that she also has some bad crippling in her fingers, Rheumotoid arthritis which could also be related to what she has going on.
Sure enough many years later at work my left hand just went numb one night and I reported it as the policy indicated. The safety person in charge took the report and told me she felt it was a repetitive motion injury to my elbow and Virginia didn't cover that under workmans comp which I knew. So I elected to contact an orthopeadic doctor and got my first visit to a neurologist. While doing the nerve induction we talked about family history and told him about the ALS. He also told me at the end of the visit the referring doctor was going to be puzzled and there were no signs of ALS.
I ended up going back for more tests and still no ALS. Then in 2008 the right hand just shut down on New Year's night while I was kicking back watching a movie and enjoying a night off that I had signed up to work but didn't have to. No warning just one minute working and then dead. Off the rest of the month and it just got better on its own though that was the next visit to the neurologist. By now though my youngest sister was having problems.
In May 2008 it happened again though it was the left hand this time. However I was already set up with the neurologists and got in there quicker this time. More tests, a lot of bloodwork and another MRI. Still nothing, no ALS and it again got better. However my sister has gotten worse and it was confirmed ALS. It would seem she had accumulated a lot of heavy metals in her system that they were trying to purge out for treatment. What is even more weird is that the family that lived next door where I had grown up as a child lost a family member to ALS years before my Dad died.
Now my sister was able to do some research into the family line but none of us is really flush with money and found that there have been family members in the past that have died from this. Some of these people go back aways and am not sure how she determined it was ALS.
So I guess I need comments and suggestions as to where to go from here. Is there something in the water that my sister drinks from her well that is making her more prone to this? The only thing they found with me was a very sight elevated level of arsenic, coming from the granite around where I live. I am also probably a little more active then her, work in a factory and raise goats so I'm always hauling around hay bales and 50 pound feed sacks. She worked at a computer when she was able. There has also got to be a better way to research family history without paying out a leg and arm for it.
My sister is on a new treatment I read about here Lutimax and she thinks its helping. It really broke my heart on my last visit. She was so scared of falling she only moved once from the couch to the kitchen table. Doesn't help that she also has some bad crippling in her fingers, Rheumotoid arthritis which could also be related to what she has going on.