7 months since last post

[SOBALSO]

Hi,

It's been 7 months since I made my last community post on ALS. I was diagnosed with ALS IN Jan. 2021. I also survived a bout of Covid in April 2021 only because my Doctor was able to get me treated with the monoclonal infusion. Fast forward to the present and I can no longer walk, bathe, or dress myself. I still have toilet ability and fortunately I am still able to eat and swallow on my own for now. I spend my waking hours in a motorized wheel chair. I am on Trilogy a non invasive breathing apparatus approximately 20 hours a day. I spend my waking hours playing solitaire, watching TV and best of all talking to my wife who along with the VA are my care givers.

Why am I writing this? If you are a Veteran you are twice as likely to get ALS than the general population. Gulf War vets unfortunately have a higher rate of getting this disease. It doesn't matter what branch of the service or how long you were in, the statistics are there and help is available through the VA. Rather than me listing all my symptoms go on the ALS web site for specific symptoms. My symptoms were posted about 7 months ago on this web site.. Discuss with your doctors if you have any and if your insurance allows ask to see a neurologist to be tested for ALS asap otherwise it could take up to four years to get diagnosed by a PCP because it is such a rare disease. If you are diagnosed with ALS and are a veteran contact your Veterans Healthcare provider, ALS society, and the PVA web site. The Veterans administration recognizes this disease as sevice related even though there is no causal link as yet.. There is help for you.

Please pass on to VETS you may know.

Thanks,

SOBALSO.

(short of breath also)

[BlanketTime1]

thank you for posting this. my dad was a vietnam veteran and he drew many parallels to Iraq looking at it from the outside. for some reason, a disproportionate number of vietnam veterans suffer from parkinson's and he in fact passed from complications of parkinson's.

i'm sorry you are struggling. you must have one of the kind and knowledgeable doctors. i'm glad you got through covid...

my uncle was in vietnam and didn't know about programs for veterans until a couple of years ago, so thank you for getting the word out.

stay strong.

[SOBALSO in reply to BlanketTime1]

As you point out most veterans don't know that they are twice as likely to get this disease nor are they aware that the VA administration recognizes this disease as being military related. With only 5,000 cases diagnosed per year there is little urgency to get this news out.