I met Mitzi the first week of September in 1975. Mitzi was just 7 then and already a freshman in college. No, not really, I'm protecting her age. She lived across the hall in our dorm.
We talked Wednesday and it got medical. I said what I thought had happened and Mitzi told me something I'd never heard from anybody. Maybe Deb knew this but the conversation never came up.
Mitzi, a pediatrician, said she sees diabetes in children and can (frequently? somethimes? always?) link its onset to a prior viral infection. If I understood her correctly, some prior exposure or genetic predisposition or some other damn reason has a disease (like ALS) laying dormant until some viral infection triggers it. Then POW, right between the eyes, the dormant condition undormants itself and you get sick.
That could mean Deb's lyme exposure triggered the ALS, it may not have been the symptom of lyme. I had been telling Dr Mitzi that this was how Deb's brand lyme disease expressed itself. It could have been arthritis or lupus or a bunch of other symptomatic collections difficult to label, but Deb drew the queen of spades. I should have known better than to explain something medical to her. Then again, this alternate explanation rings true to me.
I hope there are some smart researchers out there looking at this. ALS really, really sucks.
We talked Wednesday and it got medical. I said what I thought had happened and Mitzi told me something I'd never heard from anybody. Maybe Deb knew this but the conversation never came up.
Mitzi, a pediatrician, said she sees diabetes in children and can (frequently? somethimes? always?) link its onset to a prior viral infection. If I understood her correctly, some prior exposure or genetic predisposition or some other damn reason has a disease (like ALS) laying dormant until some viral infection triggers it. Then POW, right between the eyes, the dormant condition undormants itself and you get sick.
That could mean Deb's lyme exposure triggered the ALS, it may not have been the symptom of lyme. I had been telling Dr Mitzi that this was how Deb's brand lyme disease expressed itself. It could have been arthritis or lupus or a bunch of other symptomatic collections difficult to label, but Deb drew the queen of spades. I should have known better than to explain something medical to her. Then again, this alternate explanation rings true to me.
I hope there are some smart researchers out there looking at this. ALS really, really sucks.
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