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Range of ALS: Amber Koonce

Posted: July 10, 2008 08:20 AM EDT

Updated: July 11, 2008 11:01 AM EDT

Reported by: Britney Glaser

video

Range of ALS: Amber Koonce

http://www.kplctv.com/global/video/f...fo&rnd=5205700



Every day, 15 people in the United States are diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease. It can strike anyone, regardless of age or race. In this Healthcast, we show you the wide range of this disease as 7News sits down with recently diagnosed Amber Koonce of Sulphur.

It was in 2001 that KPLC first introduced you to Amber Koonce as a Sportsperson of the week. The sophomore pitching powerhouse led her team to a softball state championship, but her toughest battle came off the field just five years later. "I had a pain in my arm," says Amber, "I tried to clap my hands because LSU had scored a touchdown and my right arm would not meet my left arm like I wanted it to when I was clapping."

Amber was watching LSU play in the Sugar Bowl in January of 2006 when she first started noticing odd symptoms. As the Spring and Summer passed, her symptoms progressed and she started a series of visits with neurologists ranging from Baton Rouge to Houston. "After I was diagnosed with an initial neurological disorder from doctors in Lake Charles and Baton Rouge," says Amber, "I didn't feel confident with that diagnosis because the symptoms had progressed."

While Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS had been mentioned as a possibility, it took nearly two years to nail down Amber's condition. The word finally came from a neurologist in San Francisco. Amber recalls that conversation, "He looked at all of my old medical records and looked at my progression of symptoms, checked out my strength and sat down and cried with me and said, 'This is Lou Gehrig's disease.'"

Amber's mom, Carol says, "He sat and held Amber's knees and started to sob. I think my world started to crumble because I knew that we had finally received a definitive diagnosis."

There are three courses that this cureless neurodegenerative disease can take: fast, with less than a one year life expectancy. Average, with three to five years, and slow, where some patients have been able to live twenty years or more. Amber's is a slow progression.

"Physically, I've noticed that my hands and my shoulders, my muscles in my upper back and in my neck," says Amber, "they fatigue a lot faster than they used to." While Amber now needs help with daily tasks like bathing and getting dressed, she says this disease is not taking over her life.

"I'm still the same person," says Amber, "It's only made me appreciate the things in my life more than I already had. It's a scary disease, but it's not a life sentence. It's all on how you want to handle it."

*Amber's lifelong dream has been to travel to Rome. In order to make that dream possible soon, her friends and family have organized a benefit golf tournament. It's taking place Friday, August 8th, at Bayou Oaks Country Club in Carlyss. Entry forms are available at Bayou Oaks at 2300 Bon Vie Drive in Carlyss.

*To find out how you could donate to help Amber's family with medical expenses or to make her dream a reality, call Amanda or Doug Cormier at 502-3067/513-5104.

http://www.kplctv.com/Global/story.a...52658&nav=0nqx