Blame

When you are diagnosed with ALS and you start asking what you might have encountered or fallen victim to that precipitated it in you, they tell you that you are not to blame. "Nothing you did caused this," they said at the unimpressive ALS clinic. As if I were blaming myself. That's an answer to a question I didn't ask. Since the experts don't know what causes it, there is no harm in patients trying to piece together patterns. And since my rapid progression in November and December (which I hope is stabilizing now, though I don't know), I have reviewed the blog to remind myself of things that happened in that period that I might blame. Yes, I know it's possible, or even likely, that the progression was going to happen no matter what. Here are the suspects I came up with, things that changed during that period:

• painting the cabinet parts in the garage


• Astelin


• Claritin D12


• taking some pills with food instead of all on empty stomach


• daily morning hike to preschool replaced by midday walks to video store


• MRI December 9


• ginseng

All of these factors have reverted to pre-decline standing, except for taking pills with food as indicated.