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Old 05-29-2008, 08:13 AM #1
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BobbyB BobbyB is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: North Carolina
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15 yr Member
Post ALS strikes local family with devastation

ALS strikes local family with devastation
Posted By Kathleen Hay


It's said that lightning never strikes twice, but in a tragic twist of fate one of the most devastating diseases twice struck close to home for Conrad Aub‚.

The city businessman has met his share of life's challenges, however, it was within a two-year period that ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) took the lives of both his brother-in-law, Dalton Quig, and his sister, Jacqueline, who was Dalton's wife.

Although it's not an easy topic for him, he kindly agreed to share his ordeal to encourage others to support the Cornwall Walk for ALS on June 7.

"It's devastating, it really is," said Aub‚. "To see someone really healthy, like my brother-in-law, deteriorate right in front of you. "There are so many diseases, but this one, there's no cure."

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a rapidly progressive, fatal neuromuscular disease. It attacks the motor neurons responsible for transmitting electrical impulses from the brain to the voluntary muscles throughout the body. When these muscles fail to receive messages, they eventually lose strength, atrophy and die, resulting in a spreading paralysis of the whole body. There is no known cause, treatment or cure at this time.

The worst part about the disease is the mind is not usually affected by ALS, nor are the senses affected. Unlike other forms of paralysis, people afflicted with ALS may experience significant pain - and the fight is up when the muscles controlling the lungs can no longer maintain adequate oxygen levels. Aub‚ had introduced Dalton to Jacqueline when the two men were playing in the same band. He saw their romance flourish, and the love blossom between them as Jacqueline helped her husband through university, then develop his career as a French teacher in Ottawa.

"He was a very astute guy," stated Aub‚. "When he was around 60, he decided to retire and just months afterwards, he fell, 'Boom!' on his face.

"He didn't think much of it, but he kept on having these incidents." Dalton eventually sought medical advice and was diagnosed with ALS. The disease is both costly and emotionally devastating, but seeing the physical toll it took on his brother-in-law's life was equally draining.

"ALS doesn't affect your brain, and here was this very bright guy with it," said Aub‚. "He was very courageous and he decided to do a family history.

"He was very good with computers, and he got the job done."

Dalton lasted about two years with the disease which claimed his life in March, 2001. A handful of weeks later, Aub‚ very nearly lost his own life in a horrific accident while returning from Lake Placid.

Ironically, while he was being treated at the Ottawa General Hospital, he was only a few doors down from the same room in which Dalton had died.

"It was hard on me and hard on my sister," said Aub‚. "But it was while Jacqueline was coming to visit me, I started to notice how her jaw would drop.

"I said, 'Jackie, I don't know. There's something wrong. Maybe you might have had a little stroke.'

"But she said she was fine."

It was a logical reason, he added, given the stress she had experience, first with her husband's death, then with her brother's accident.

In mid-June Aub‚ was released from hospital, but returned to Ottawa frequently for therapy. On those trips, he'd visit his sister at her home on the weekends.

"I kept coaxing her to go to a neurologist," he continued. "Finally she did and, sure enough, she had ALS, too.

"The family was completely devastated."

Hers was a quicker death than Dalton's whose disease had first affected his lower body. Jacqueline's, on the other hand, was struck in her upper body, closer to the all-important lungs. Within a year of her diagnosis, she passed away. Anyone can get ALS, but it is not contagious. While not common, it is not a rare disease, in fact, 2,000 Canadians are currently living with it. In about five to 10 per cent of cases of ALS there is a hereditary pattern, but the vast majority are sporadic cases.

Registration for the Cornwall Walk for ALSis at Windmill Point, St. Lawrence College, beginning at 7:30 a.m., with the kick-off at 10:30 a.m. For more information, contact event chair, Kim Walsh at 613-938-4792, or visit www.alscornwall.com

http://www.standard-freeholder.com:8...aspx?e=1048935
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