Something I Find Hard To Talk About

The Ice Bucket Challenge has been all over the news recently
raising awareness for ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.  ALS stands for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis which is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects your nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.  It is a fatal disease, even though ALS doesn't affect the heart or the digestive system.

It makes me happy to know that more awareness of this fairly rare disease is being made known by the Ice Bucket Challenge and a lot of money has been pouring in for research. 

As of now, there is no known cure or anything to keep an ALS patient from dying.  It is a death sentence when once the diagnosis is handed out.  There are a few who manage to live many years with this disease, but most only live from 2-5 years.

Twenty percent more men get the disease than women.  And only
5-10 percent is of the hereditary strain.

This is the horrible, devastating disease that took the lives of my grandfather, my mother and both my brothers.  None of them lived beyond 2 years once their diagnosis was made.  My brothers lived less than a year.
 
My point in writing this in my post today is not to garner sympathy.  It is a way for me to try to help overcome my own fears.
  
I've never been able to speak about it very much.  Even after all these years.  It's been 16 years since I lost my younger brother.  

I have touched on it a time or two in my posts and I must say that it is easier to write about it than to talk about it.  Even now, tears are rolling down my face when I remember how my loved ones died. 

It was horrible to see them the way they ended up and knowing that
you were helpless and nothing could be done to help them.  I don't know that the pain or the fear of something like this ever totally goes away.  I hope that some day soon I'll be able to speak about it more, even with my children, without those cold, icy fingers of fear grabbing my heart.

Please join me in prayer that a cure will be found for ALS as well as for many other horrible diseases that so many suffer from.
 
Finally, kudos to all who are accepting the Bucket Challenge!  I read today that our previous president, GWBush, took the challenge and he in turn has challenged Bill Clinton.  Do you think he will accept the challenge?

Happy Wednesday to you!
xo Cheryl