I don't remember why I started this Journal. I don't think I even intended to create a journal. I have always enjoyed writing, but never had the time in my busy and varied schedule to commit to the routine necessary for effective journaling. I believe it just evolved organically. My situation had changed. I was retired. I was in a wheelchair. I was 4 1/2 years from the devastating diagnosis of ALS. I had been practicing yoga for 18 months, had found my breath and was enjoying a daily practice. I was in a routine! I had begun to entertain the radical thought that my practice was positively affecting the rate of my progression. I sensed a glimmer of hope. After a few months of having this thought rattling around in my head, I became convinced enough to want to share this possibility with my family and close friends. I was looking for a place to memorialize this profound revelation. I opened Apple Notes on my iPhone and started writing.

I now have chronicled seven years of my journey with ALS. There is no doubt in my mind that through yoga and the breathwork it engendered, I have slowed my progression, reconnected to the muscles of my core thus maintaining my breathing, and staved off the symptoms of painful cramping and the dreaded bulbar symptoms.

ALS is a progressive disease. You are told that each patient will decline at their own rate, that rate is steady, and there is nothing the patient can reliably do to affect this rate of decline. While I approached my disease with Conscious Denial, electing not to dwell on what I was losing, the powerful pull of my disease was always lurking below the surface. My journey has been marked by ebbs and flows. In the down times, I have felt sorry for myself, but my breath-based practice has never failed to turn an ebb into a flow. I hope my journey will inspire others that there is life after the diagnosis of ALS.

​

Scott Frederick Stieber, M.D.

03/03/2023