Katelyn did her presentation on Steve Gleason who is a previous NFL player who now has ALS. ALS, or amyotrophic laterals sclerosis, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. There are two different types of ALS, sporadic and familial. Sporadic, which is the most common form of the disease in the U.S., accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all cases. It may affect anyone, anywhere. Familial ALS accounts for 5 to 10 percent of all cases in the U.S. Familial ALS means the disease is inherited. In those families, there is a 50% chance each offspring will inherit the gene mutation and may develop the disease Shortly after being diagnosed Steve decided to turn his experience into a documentary. He also started an ALS foundation. Katelyn was very prepared and also did an excellent job on her powerpoint and presentation. One really cool thing I learned was that he has a state of the art power-wheelchair that he controls with his eye gaze!!! That is truly amazing.
For my first Neuro-Note I decided to watch the documentary Transfatty Lives and boy was it eye-opening. The documentary is about a 30 year old man named Patrick O’Brien, who has just been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). This film did an incredible job portraying every single aspect of what living with ALS is actually like. Before his diagnosis Patrick was a DJ in New York City, an internet personality, as well as a filmmaker. From what it seemed Patrick was the life of the party just about wherever he went. He was in the process of shooting a film when he was diagnosed with ALS and decided to turn the cameras to portray what his life would become. This film truly made me think about how I would handle or approach coming to terms with something like ALS. I do know that there is no way I would be able to remain as happy and as upbeat as Patrick did, nor could I continue to make everyone around me continue to smile the way he did. His story was so inspirational, not...
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