Bring ALS Awareness And To Help Kim Out

Hi my name is Mashell Landry, with the permission from my sister in law I want to reach out for some help and also share some awareness. Here is Kim’s story, In the beginning of October my sister in law was living a pretty normal life she was working as a security guard at an airport in her hometown, she had been going through some personal and rough times, along with those times she noticed that her finger was not straightening out , so she made an appointment for an MRI for what she thought was a “trigger finger”. Unfortunately, that trigger finger test became multiple other tests very quickly, which made her question what was going on, but she kept this quiet, and before her birthday she was diagnosed with ALS or what a lot of people know as Lou Gehrig’s disease. For anyone who asks yes Kim got a second opinion and that second opinion also came back as a diagnosis with ALS. For those of you who do not know what ALS is, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a progressive nervous system disease. As the disease progresses, it destroys nerve cells and can contribute to various forms of disability and other symptoms. The issue primarily affects motor neurons – those that are responsible for regulating our motion.

The early stages of the disease are usually characterized by mild muscle twitching or slurred speech as the muscles in the mouth begin to fail. As the disease gets worse it can impair a person’s ability to move their muscles at all and can hinder their ability to eat, talk, or perform other daily functions. Unfortunately, there is currently no known cure for the disease. If it is left to progress without managing it at all, it can eventually be fatal. Most people with ALS have an expected life expectancy of 2-5 years.

So with this background on ALS and the information on this my sister in law has progressed and lost a lot of muscle in one hand already. With the loss of muscle in her hand unfortunately she had to talk with her job, to see if there maybe other options for her to do at her current position or even different hours because she gets very tired with this disease and working nights like she was, but unfortunately there was not. So she had to “retire” early, which anyone who knows Kim knows this is very hard for her. This leaves Kim at this point with no job and just living on the saving that she has saved up until disability and the state of VT processes her paperwork which we know can take a while. With Kim’s permission I am asking for your help if you can donate please do, but if you can not at least please share this post to get the awareness out there about ALS, this is also Kim’s wish.

Kim would give anyone the shirt off her back. She loves her family especially her nieces that are pictured above with her, the nieces and nephews not in the picture, and also the nieces and nephews she’s adopted along the way. Kim has many friends that has turned into her family that we are so thankful for, especially now. This disease unfortunately is devastating for many families. There is so many unknown answers and questions. Please share and help get the awareness out there about this horrible disease. If you can help at all we would all appreciate this for her. ALS s*cks.