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Steve Cochlan can’t sleep.
He lies down and closes his eyes. He rests his head on a pillow. Sometimes, he’s even technically unconscious. But real rest never arrives.
Throughout the night, Cochlan’s muscles twitch, constantly and involuntarily. These twitches, called fasciculations, started about three years ago, and they eventually became concerning enough that Cochlan went to his doctor at the Mayo Clinic for an assessment. One appointment led to another, one test to the next. Then, on April 23, 2019, doctors officially diagnosed Steve with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, after the beloved baseball player who brought national and international attention to the disease. It is a fatal condition with no cure or remedy. In the United States, around 6,000 people are diagnosed with ALS each year, one every 90 minutes. The disease progresses differently from person to person. Some lose the ability to pick up a fork or speak clearly soon after their diagnosis, while others are able to walk or talk or write with a pen for years. Overall, though, the statistics are grim: after diagnosis, people with ALS live an average of only three to five years.
Cochlan’s diagnostic appointment was a sobering one. “The doctor had nothing to offer me [in terms of a cure],” he says. The doctor told Cochlan that he had a few years left, and the conversation boiled down to “you need to go home and get your house in order.”
Living Between Two Poles
Subsequent to leaving Mayo Clinic, it was recommended that Cochlan connect with the Greater Chicago Chapter of the ALS Association. Before he knew it, he was spending dozens of hours every week on things relating ...
from Christianity Today Magazine
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