Healthier Together: ALS awareness - 'There is no cure'

ALS is a progressive disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord as well. Although the disease was discovered in 1869, there is still no cure and no treatment. In this week's, a woman shares her story of working her dream job to receiving a gut-wrenching diagnosis.

"I was a physician assistant in cardiothoracic surgery, and I was offered a job out here, and it's been the dream job of my life," said Valerie O’Mara. "I loved getting up every day and going to work. My name is Valerie I lived in Seattle since 1981. And was diagnosed with ALS in March of 2018." "It was the saddest day of my life, to leave a career that I had cherished for almost four years," said O’Mara. "But I also have the mindset that I've been given this diagnosis that carries a two to five year life expectancy. We were expecting our first grandchild, and I just thought ‘I need to focus on family,’ and so while it was the saddest day of my life to leave my career, it was the best thing. Flash forward to now.

O’Mara says she’s hopeful that researchers will make progress in the search for a treatment or a cure. "I always tell people, ALS was discovered in 1869, but my diagnosis five years ago is exactly the same thing Lou Gehrig heard. There is no cure. There's no reversal. There's no slowing this down, and we're just now pushing to get more research. Get them to figure out how to get medicines that can get halt it, reverse its, cure it. Someone is going to hit the keys and find a cure. And while it's not like to benefit myself, it can help somebody else down the road.

Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)

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