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Here is our Mom’s Story:
Donna Scott is a loving wife, mother of 3 and mom-mom to 7 grandbabies. At 50 years of age, Donna went from being a busy, hardworking, independent women to having her mobility take away in the blink of an eye. In September of 2019 our family received some of the worst news you can possibly imagine. Donna was diagnosed with ALS, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.” Amyotrophic” comes from the Greek language. "A" means no. "Myo" refers to muscle. "Trophic" means nourishment. So, amyotrophic means "no muscle nourishment,” and when a muscle has no nourishment, its "atrophies" or wastes away. “Lateral" identifies the areas in a person's spinal cord where portions of the nerve cells that signal and control the muscles are located.
As this area degenerates, it leads to scarring or hardening ("sclerosis") in the region. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their demise. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. When voluntary muscle action is progressively affected, people may lose the ability to speak, eat, move and breathe.
Prior to her diagnosis Donna join a wellness program through work. She reached her goal form 30,000 steps pre day and losing 47 lbs. After that she began losing her balance and experiencing twitching in her arms and knew something was wrong. After seeing several doctors and going through several test an EMG test told us the bad news.
As you can imagine the diagnosis was shocking to Donna and our family. Since that day, life has dramatically changed for all of us. This disease has caused huge life changes. In such short time, she went from walking and exercising to having no mobility from the neck down. The countless changes we’ve had to make in our daily lives that have become our new normal. Tony, her husband, had become Donna's full time care giver having to give up working to take care of her. Everyday routines were continuing to get harder for them both. Work has become challenging but due to open new door to technology which allowed her to continue working for 4+ years. With the need for equipment and medications as you all can understand it became very expensive. Right now, Donna and Tony need each other more than anything. they have always been a great team & they will forever be!
Unfortunately, Donna passed on November 29th, 2023. She fought hard and never complained. She will be missed dearly! She would have wanted us to continue being advocates for those affected by this horrible disease.
