Friend
I don't even know where to begin. My name is Martha Martinez and my
brother in law Hector was diagnosed with ALS on January 2003 and lost his
battle in on December 23, 2004.
During the time if his illness I learned a great deal about the disease and
also learned of all the wonderful help and support that is out there for
patients and their families.
We were lucky enough to take part in some clinical trials at UCLA and we
were able to visit the ALS clinic at UCLA as well. I found that the MDA
was a wonderful resource for many things, but most importantly a wonderful
support mechanism for me.
Some of the things that my family and I did was divide his care amongst the
family members. I was in charge of physical therapy and equipment. I went
to the therapy appointments with him and followed up on all orders for
equipment. My husband lead the effort on all disability and medical
paperwork. My sister in law led the efforts with other medical
appointments. This was a more manageable way to divide the
responsibilities.
I am sure you have researched the websites. MDA has great information and
so does the ALS association. They provide great free reading materials
that will make you and your family more knowledgeable about the disease.
Please consider me a friend to correspond with and I hope this is
the beginning of a friendship.
In God's peace and love,
Martha Martinez