RIP Chris Snow

Stunning news and the family history is horrifying: His dad, two uncles and a cousin have died from it.

DEAR HOCKEY FAMILY

 

Darned blurry monitor...

 

For those who don’t know/remember, he started as one of us before joining hockey ops.

Godspeed.

 

I saw this on the bottom line tonight ... just awful. (Bear with me) I have a group of friends who are friends with a woman who was diagnosed with ALS at age 35. Just hearing about all of the care that she has to have just to survive ... such an awful thing. But they stick by her. They donate money. They donate time for the 24/7 care she needs, from bathing, to dressing, to just being able to communicate via her eyes. Heartbreaking.

 

F ALS.

A man in my city, whom I got to know from covering, has become a dear friend. He is on YEAR NINE of his ALS battle since his diagnosis. He's down to blinking and moving his eyes as his only mobility. Four years ago, he could still talk and swallow, moving his hand to get his wheelchair around.

We "talk" through Facebook when I see him pop up.

He (and his family) have told me that, when it's time for him to pass away, he wants me there -- with cameras rolling -- to record what this awful disease has done. Said if THAT doesn't move people to want to find a cure, nothing will.

 

This is horrible. ALS has always struck me as the most frightening disease there is.

 

Sad story. One part that struck me was that he’s part of an experimental test, but he doesn't know if he’s getting the new drug or the placebo. I’m thinking that has to majorly suck if he finds out he’s getting the placebo.

 

Ex, unfortunately, if medical science doesn't become much more powerful or advanced, a cure for ALS is most likely never going to happen. The way my neurologist explained it to me is, there are dozens and dozens of spots in the gene code where ALS can develop, and even pinpointing where it started is impossible. Once the symptoms begin, there's no real way to know where or why it started.

I've said before the brown recluse spiders and ALS are the only two things I'm scared of.

 

There seem to be different causes. Snow's is genetic -- and he's getting treatment that targets the genes.

There does seem to be evidence that there could be a link between football (CTE) and ALS. That would be preventable.

And finally, I've been reading articles lately about blue green algae. There seems to be a link.

So ALS could one day be something akin to polio. We can't cure it, but we might be able to almost completely eradicate it.

 

I wish this thread was being unearthed for better news. Chris Snow suffered a cardiac event this week and will be taken off life support shortly. However you go about thinking good thoughts for others, please do that for the Snow family.

 

Oh no.

 

Kelsie has been amazingly strong in all of this. The piece she wrote in the Globe — it ran two years ago yesterday — was touching. Her latest blog entry was brutally honest and was a gut punch.

Globe piece: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/27/sports/chris-kelsie-snow-als-fenway-park/