The Ever Elusive Plateau

Low and behold, I woke up this morning and realized that it's been nearly 2 months since my last post. Quite simply, ignoring things like this that I really enjoy doing makes me realize the insane pace that I've been trying to live at while battling this disease. That's where the title of this post comes into play.

For good or for bad American society and culture places tremendous emphasis on growth, development, higher achievement and acquisition of the material trappings that accompany the ascent.

We live our lives attempting to move up the corporate ladder, move from the 1200 sq. ft. house to the 2400 sq. ft. house with sites on the 3600 sq. ft house. If we work hard to become an 18 handicap golfer we're not satisfied until we get to a 10. Toyota makes a great car, but that Lexus would be a nice step up.

As I mention above, I'm not judging whether the propensity to climb is inherently good or bad. Heck, for 40 years of my life I followed the herd, just like most of you... moooooooooo. Ironically enough, whether I like it or not, ALS has brought that to a screeching halt.

The incredibly persistent, never ending but gradual decline in my physical capabilities have left me peddling harder just to keep up. I'm working at everything 3 times as hard, not to ascend, but just in an effort to achieve an increasingly elusive plateau.

Not trying to move up the corporate ladder, but trying to continue being able to work at all.
Not moving to a newer bigger house, trying to keep the one we have.
Not working to lower my golf handicap, just hoping that I can still play miniature golf with my kids.
Not struggling to afford the Lexus, struggling to keep my independence by being able to drive at all.

At some point, as hard as I may try, the desire to find that plateau gives way to the relentless nature of the disease. In other words, maybe it was feasible in the past to peddle harder in order to keep up but, unlike most of the riders in the Tour de France, there aren't any performance enhancing drugs that will allow me to keep up with the pelaton. I'm slowly but steadily being forced to succumb to the reality of the disease (don't read this as giving up, because I will Never Give Up!).

Which is a perfect prelude into my next topic...

HGH

Around the time of my diagnosis, Human Growth Hormone (HGH) was a hot media topic; Mainly, because of it's alleged connection to performance enhancement of some of the world's premiere athletes (primarily baseball players).

I thought to myself...how ironic would it be if HGH, a glaring black eye on the great American pastime, could come full circle and help slow progression of the disease that's named after one of it's most celebrated stars (Lou Gehrig)

With absolutely no medical basis for my "hunch" my mom and I started researching it. We found an MD in Chico, CA that has had ALS for 10 years and feels as if his injections of HGH have allowed him to find plateaus in the progression of his symptoms (with solid biological reasoning supporting his assertion). We also found some promising results from laboratory studies on the potential of HGH as a drug therapy for ALS.

The problem is that there are no existing clinical trials based on HGH. We're attempting to find an Endocrinologist that is willing to prescribe HGH for me to see if it helps. That's proving to be quite a challenge in today's litigious world.

I will keep you posted on the progress. My ultimate goal is to read the following headline in the SF Chronicle

"HGH Represents Splash Landing For Lou Gehrig Victims"

Until next month...

Cheers!

DD