STROMSBURG - She can no longer speak and it is a struggle just to make it up the short flight of stairs to her bedroom each night.
But June Moore, a 71-year-old Stromsburg woman doesn't spend her time asking "why me?"
Sitting in her living room chair, her walker within arm's reach, June reaches down to grab a small touch-screen computer. Placing it on her lap, she types for a moment then looks up as she presses a final button. A computerized woman's voice emits from the machine, "My husband should be in soon. Go to the back door and call out 'Dale.'"
Since May, the communication device has been June's voice. She lost her ability to talk to Bulbar ALS, a form of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gherig's Disease. The onset symptoms of Bulbar are in the facial muscles, speech and swallowing. Along with being unable to talk, June has lost her ability to eat. She has to be fed through a feeding tube.
She calls her husband Dale her good nurse because it is he who has been caring for her at their home. He helps her up to the stairs to bed every evening, readies her food and medication, and drives her to doctor's appointments and support group meetings.
"She's taken care of me for years, now it's my turn," Dale said. He went on to explain that during their 52 years of marriage, it was June who would take the wheel and drive the couple around while Dale served as navigator. But now that June's muscles have weakened from the neurodegenerative disease she can't drive.
ALS usually affects people between the ages of 40 to 70 and can attack both the upper and lower body. It causes a degeneration throughout the brain and spinal cord, according to the ALS Association Web page.
June first started to have health problems two years ago.
"Her voice was getting funny. It sounded like she was drunk," Dale said. She also had another common symptom - her muscles began to twitch.
At first, doctors said she had acid reflux, but a visit to a specialist in Kansas City unveiled the real problem - ALS. She was diagnosed with Bulbar ALS in June of 2004 and the disease has progressed rapidly. It was only last fall that June was able to help harvest the crops on the couple's farm, but now she said she spends most of her day watching television and reading.
Unlike Alzheimer's or other diseases that affect a person's memory, those with ALS are aware of what is going on around them. Dale describes the disease as having a fine mind, but a useless body.
Typically people live two to five years after their diagnosis, so the couple think of each day that they have together as a bonus.
"We take it one day at a time. When there is nothing you can do about it, it doesn't do any good to dwell on it," Dale said.
June said she has put her faith in the Lord and feels lucky that if she had to get this disease that it happened to now.
"I see so many younger people with this disease (at the support groups) that I feel blessed that I got it later in life," she said.
Both she and Dale attend support groups for ALS in Columbus and Omaha. It is there that June said she has learned how to deal with the disease and formed friendships with others who are also living with it.
Reach Julie Blum at 563-7535 or jblum@columbustelegram.com.
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