Keeping a bright outlook
National ALS Awareness Month Dr. Brent Beson and patient Don Strahorn, who has ALS, discuss the disease.
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By Jeff Raymond
Staff Writer

The only clue to most people that Don Strahorn has a fearsome disease is the flesh-colored brace on his right leg.
Without the calf-to-ankle support, the Midwest City retiree couldn't play golf.


I shot an 84 this year, which was the best I've ever shot,” said Strahorn, 51.
Strahorn knows what it means to have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS and Lou Gehrig's disease. He also knows that keeping a positive outlook and maintaining a normal life are crucial to his health.

"There's no way to know what's going to happen next. We don't think about it all the time. We've just got to live our life and do what we did beforehand,” he said.

Strahorn is one of estimated 250 Oklahomans who have ALS. May is National ALS Awareness Month.


It began with a weak foot
Difficulty walking and painless weakness in a limb are common first signs of the muscular degeneration that characterizes ALS.
Strahorn noticed his foot was weak two years ago. As his limp worsened, walking became more difficult.

"As I'm sitting up, my foot would just hang,” he said.

His wife of three decades, Lynda, admits things were tough at first, but the couple's faith, family and friends have kept them upbeat. Friends arranged a run earlier this month to raise money for the family to renovate a bathroom.

"Probably the hardest thing about this is we found out about this the day before our daughter got married,” she said.

The two have four children, all living in the metro area.

"They've hung in there. They're pretty tough,” said Lynda Strahorn, 50.

Although monthly support group meetings have been "uplifting,” she said, they also have made real what her husband faces. At the first meeting he attended, he was the only one able to walk in. Others were in wheelchairs and had trouble speaking. Although her husband was reluctant to go in, Lynda Strahorn insisted.

Both know what's in store.

"We have to laugh, and that's how our family is. We're tight,” she said.

Don Strahorn has taken this approach, joking about dragging his "ALS foot” when he moves slowly.

"Who ever thought I'd be one of ‘Jerry's Kids,'” he told his wife.


‘Still somewhat of an enigma'
Dr. Brent Beson, adult medical director of the MDA Neuromuscular Center at Integris Southwest Medical Center, treats Strahorn and about 130 others throughout the region. He said ALS shows itself many ways and can mimic other illnesses. Brain scans are normal in those with the disease.
"Most people describe it as a painless weakness with no loss of sensation,” Beson said.

Scientists don't know what causes most cases of ALS or why some people maintain muscle use longer than others. Doctors have no way to tell who will live 20 years and who will live two years.

"It's still somewhat of an enigma,” Beson said. The disease crosses age, geographic and ethnic boundaries.

The main concern for doctors is maintaining patients' nutritional needs and ability to breathe, and prolonging muscle function as long as possible.

Kenneth Hensley, an Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist who has studied ALS, said acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, has shown a small effect.

"We've found that certain anti-inflammatory compounds — by no means all of them — have some promise,” he said.

Hensley said earlier diagnosis may help patients' chances.

"It may be six months to a year before they have a definite diagnosis of ALS,” he said.

MDA representatives and ALS care coordinators work with patients at the Southwest clinic. The association pays for clinic visits and helps with the cost of wheelchairs that cost more than many new cars.

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