ALS

ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is an incredibly devastating illness. Familial ALS ( fALS ) multiplies that devastation by the number of family members who are stricken. So far, it has taken my dad, his brother, and my sister Patty. Another sister may have it now, and a cousin in his mid-sixties is in a nursing home with frontotemporal dementia, which is caused by the same gene. Dad has still more children, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren who may be affected, but nobody has been tested. Nobody wants to know.