The Beginning

I’m sure many of you are wondering what this is about. We have put this together for many reasons. We have had questions about what the disease is that my dad has and how people can help. This is what I came up with…Our whole world changed as did my family’s last November when our dad was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease.Our father Steven Merlin Russon, age 52, married to his sweetheart of 28 yrs, and a father to 3 girls and 1 boy (Jenny , Kari , Kim and Kyle) with two still at home is the strongest man we will ever know. Why do we say that…because even though he knows some hard times are ahead of him, even though he may be suffering, he’s always smiling, and tries to make US laugh!Now it’s our turn to try and help him. For those of you who do not know what ALS is…here is a short description. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease," is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. 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 death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.As motor neurons degenerate, they can no longer send impulses to the muscle fibers that normally result in muscle movement. Early symptoms of ALS often include increasing muscle weakness, especially involving the arms and legs, speech, swallowing or breathing. When muscles no longer receive the messages from the motor neurons that they require to function, the muscles begin to atrophy (become smaller). Limbs begin to look "thinner" as muscle tissue atrophies.Our father does not want sympathy… what he wants is life, he did not choose to have ALS, it chose him. He insists on staying active as long as possible. Even though walking is difficult at times, he makes an effort to not stop doing the things he loves to do. He still gets out most weekends and plays his 9 holes of golf no matter how hard it is on him or how tired he feels.Our father has always been the rock in the family. We have been so blessed to have such a supportive and loving father to guide us in our lives. With his unwavering faith, we have become a much stronger family. Growing up, our parents never missed any activity that was important to us, be it basketball, soccer or football games. They are always there to lift us up when we have failed and gave us the courage to try again.We have put a lot of thought into how people can help if they wish. Besides the love and support from friends and family we did have one suggestion. As the medical bills begin to build up, we decided to set up a charity account at America’s First Credit Union in our fathers name for anyone who would like to contribute. All you have to do is say you want to contribute to the Steve Russon charitable account. All the donations would go to paying for bills, medical bills, hospice, etc.Thank you for taking the time to read this. If anyone would like more information please contact me at jennyreding25@hotmail.com or my sister Kari at kariclements@hotmail.com Please forward this to anyone who you think would benefit from reading this. Thanks again,Jenny Reding