I will reply to all questions by e-mail.
Be sure to include your e-mail address.
Thank you for signing my guestbook.
Debbie

kaima nelson-bowen |

i am a massage therapist working with ALS patients and would like information or experience in finding and using neck braces. thanks April 29 ,2008 - Amerika

Cheng-Hua Zhao |

I have retired and live in Beijing, China. I have one son and one grandson, they live in USA. With my wife's help, I can send you emailand communicate with all of my friends in the world! April 26 ,2008 - Beijing, China

Lorri McKelvey Baltzer |

I love your site and being able read other peoples struggles with ALS. My dad, Alex McKelvey passed away from ALS March 01,2001. The disease took over his body very quickly. He first took notice to weakness in his legs in October of 1999, visited his primary doctor the same month. His doctor did not like the sound of things, so he sent him to a Neurologist the next week. By early November, he had a biopsy of the muscles in his leg. By December 16,1999 we had confirmation that it was ALS. At this time, Dad was already using a cane to walk. By Feb. 2000, he was using a walker and only a month later, he was wheelchair bound. April 5, 2000 we had to rush him the hospital with breathing problems. Dad came home from the hosiptal 3 weeks later on the ventilator. He was only home for 2 weeks before we rushed him back to the hosiptal with pnuemonia. After another 2 week stay in the hospital we were able to bring him home where he was for 11 months before he decided that it was time. My dad was a strong, hard working man. A man that was always busy. He was a young man of 51 at the time of his passing. He was a very brave man in the end. He chose the day he would pass, Thursday. (He didn't want to mess up anyone's work week.) He planned his own funeral, picked his own casket & everything. There was not one decision that my step mom and I had to make other than what headstone to pick. ALS & my daddy taught me a lot about life. I try to make the most of the life that I have been given. I hate to think of the many, many others in the world you are suffering b/c of this horrid disease! It just sickens me to know that the research for a cure is so limited b/c of funding! It angers me especialy now b/c I just had to watch one of my very best friends bury her 3yr old daughter b/c of a disease that is so strikingly similar, it is called (SMA - Spinal Muscular Atrophy). If we can find a cure for one, then it would also take care of the other. Please keep fighting and staying strong! March 25 ,2008 - Pell City, Alabama

BRITT F. KELLOGG |

HI DEBBIE. HAVEN'T TALKED TO YOU FOR AWHILE. MY LATEST RESEARCH IS ABOUT LITHIUM CARBONATE AND RILIZOLE WHICH I AM GOING TO START TAKING AT FIFTY MILLGRAMS OF RILIZOLE A DAY PLUS THREE HUNDRED MILLIGRAMS OF LITHIUM CARBONATE A DAY TO SEE IF IT WILL SLOW THE PROGRESS OF ALS. THE REASON I'M DOING THIS IS BECAUSE OF WHAT I READ ON THE INTERNET AFTER I PUNCED IN LITHIUM CARBONATE AND ALS. I DECIDED I WOULD GIVE IT A TRY. ALSO MDA AFTER THEY FOUND OUT THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT HAD SUCH GOOD RESULTS WITH THEIR ALS PATIENTS THAT THE USA WOULD DO A MAJOR STUDY ON LITHIUM CARBONATE FOR ALS. WELL TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE FOR THOSE WITH ALS AND I DECIDED NOT TO WAIT FOR MDA TO DO THEIR STUDY WHICH COULD TAKES YEARS. ALSO PRESIDENT BUSH IS GOING TO ALLOW MORE MONEY FOR STEM CELL RESEARCH THIS YEAR BEING THAT SCIENTISTS HAVE FIGURED A WAY TO TAKE ONE'S OWN SKIN TISSUE CELL AND MAKE THEM BEHAVE LIKE EMBRYONIC CELLS IS A WONDERFUL THING. NO TIME SINCE ALS WAS DISCOVERED HAS THERE BEEN SO MUCH FOUND OUT TO GIVE US ALL HOPE. EVERY DAY THEY ARE FINDING OUT MORE AND MORE. I'M CONVINCED THAT A CURE IS COMING. HOPE YOU ARE DOING WELL. GOD BLESS YOU AND YOURS YOUR FRIEND BRITT F. KELLOGG February 10 ,2008

Angele Harvey |

Hi. I just finished watching the made for tv movie on Jennifer Estes and I have to say, it was very difficult for me to watch as I lost my dad on November 28, 2007 of ALS. I too thought, when he was diagnosed that there must be a cure by now...I didn't realize how very little advancement there actually has been since Lou Gehrig had it. I take solace in the fact the my dad (75 years) also was diagnosed with dementia so, he didn't know what was happening to him. From the day of diagnosis to his death, it was 7 days. Extremely fast. But again, after leaning about this disease, I'm glad it was this way for him. I hope and pray with everything in me that this stem cell research will finally be the cure that all ALS patients are looking for. Thanks. February 9 ,2008 - Ottawa, ON Canada