Battling Lou Gehrig's for 14 years
 

Battling Lou Gehrig's for 14 years
By Kathryn F. Pickard


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Betty and Andy Counselman in their Jackson home.

Andy Counselman has been dealing with ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease since 1993.

"I first noticed a weakness in the right hand. At the time I didn't realize what was going on, I just thought I was weak. My wife would ask me to open a jar, and I had always been right handed, but I had to use my left hand," the Jackson resident said.

In 1994 he was sitting at his desk and noticed the muscles in his arm twitching. "I wasn't doing anything with my arm, so they shouldn't have been moving. I watched that for couple of months."

When Andy first went to the doctor a CAT scan was ordered to check the nerves in his neck, but nothing was found at that time.

Andy worked at Vanity Fair. In March of 1995 he was at work and felt a dull pain in his chest. "I told my boss I didn't feel good. My wife took me to the emergency room at Grove Hill and they rushed me to Mobile."

He had triple by-pass surgery. While he was in the hospital he mentioned the problems he was having with his arm. A neurologist was called in and they began running tests.

"After two or three visits he said he didn't know what was wrong. They sent me to UAB. They ran tests and the doctor said I had neuropathy. Then it spread to my left arm and they said it was multi-fungal neuropathy."

Over the next several years Andy would try various treatment, including high doses of vitamins, medication administered through an I.V. and having the blood taken from one side of his body and put back in the other side.

"In 2000 I began having trouble dressing myself so I decided to retire. I was 62-yearsold."

After retiring Andy and his wife, Betty, decided they would travel. They went to Alaska, Australia, Austria, Nova Scotia, Niagara Falls, Yellowstone National Park and many other places.

In 2002 friends of the Counselmans were going to the ALS clinic in Houston, Texas and suggested that Andy go.

Andy, Betty and his sister, Mary Dunagan, went to Houston and the doctors there had Andy hospitalized to run tests.

"The doctor came into my room and told me he had good news and bad news. The bad news was I had ALS. The good news that I was still alive after all these years."

Andy visited the clinic in Houston every three months until February of this year. They are now looking for a neurologist closer to home.

He has done a great deal of research on his illness and is always on the lookout for a new treatment.

"He'll call the doctor when he finds something and sees if it's worth trying. He's been doctoring on himself," Betty laughed.

He has been using a feeding tube since April 2006 and a breathing machine for twoand a-half years now. "He still enjoys his coffee, he just has to drink it with a straw and he mainly uses the breathing machine at night," Betty said.

He can manipulate his ring finger well enough to use a computer and he also enjoys listening to blue grass music.

"We do a lot of riding. We went to a bluegrass festival in March," Betty added. "It takes a lot of effort to go somewhere. He can't walk very far so we take a wheelchair with us and he can't take the heat. It interferes with his breathing."

They have discussed the stem cell therapy being performed in China, but the doctor told Andy to take the $20,000 they would spend on the treatment and take his family on a vacation, that it only helped temporarily.

Speaking has become more difficult for Andy so he recently ordered a DynaVox, a foot operated computer that will help him communicate with others.

Andy gives a lot of credit to his wife and sister for helping to take care of him. "It's like taking care of an infant. Only thing is, I'm an ornery 68-year-old," he laughed.
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