You may know me through my work with the Media suite of modules, and before that for my work with Embedded Media Field and Views Slideshow. You may have read my book, Drupal Multimedia, which I wrote before the birth of my second daughter, or seen me speak at a Drupal Camp or DrupalCon. You might have worked with me at a code sprint. Even if you haven’t met me, you might have seen some of my handiwork through one of the many sites I’ve helped developed over the years with Advomatic. Drupal has been a central part of my life - one of my three loves.

Earlier this year, my family and I were given some devastating news. I was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known in the US as Lou Gehrig's Disease, which is a motor neuron disease that is slowly killing the motor neurons in my body. This is an incurable, terminal illness: 50% of patients diagnosed are dead within 2-3 years, and a further 20% in five years. Only 10% of patients are still alive after 10 years, and the majority of those are "locked in", like Stephen Hawking, unable to move any part of their body other than their eyes. The senses and cognitive functionality are spared. The disease is a progressively degenerative Motor Neuron Disease (MND), that eventually kills every voluntary muscle in the body, until the diaphragm collapses, which is generally when the patient dies, unless they are given a tracheostomy (and don't succumb to pneumonia).

This rare disease is sporadic, with no known cause. It's considered an "orphan disease", with an incidence rate of about 1 in 100,000. My neurologist is hopeful in my case, as it's limb onset (rather than bulbar, or brain-stem, onset), and I'm on the younger side of the bell-curve. Still, an early prognosis is impossible, as the disease progresses randomly. Right now, he said that based on my EMG, he expects to see clinical signs in my legs by next year, although he can't say if I'll be in a wheelchair by then.

Currently, I am unable to lift more than about 1-2 pounds. It's been hard on my wife, as she's doing everything I'm unable to do (vacuuming, dishes, etc.), on top of raising our children and pursuing her Masters. Our house is the opposite of accessible, with no first floor bathroom and being on a steep hill. Thus, we're in the meantime looking to buy a ranch house that we'll be able to modify.

Although I have some visible atrophy in my shoulders, wrists, and thumbs, I'm feeling on top of the world. I'm trying to front-load my life now, to ensure I'm doing what I'm able to at full capacity while I still can. I'm hopeful; I've been expecting a medical revolution this decade, and if I can hold on with my wits, I might be able to take advantage of that. Even if that doesn’t happen, from reading about and connecting with other PALS (Patients with ALS), I've learned, unsurprisingly, that the longer-lived people are those who manage to maintain a positive attitude in life.

I'm fortunate to be working with Advomatic, both because my job (Drupal!) is something I'm still able (and love) to do, and because I'm surrounded by such a supportive team. I plan to develop for as long as I'm able; I'm looking into voice recognition software for when my hands ultimately go. In a race against time, I'm also 'voice banking', recording my voice so that when I ultimately lose my voice, the computer will sound roughly like me. (Hawking's complaint is that he sounds "like a damn Yankee").

I know that many of you will want to know how to help me and my family. I know from experience that the first response is to want to make food. I appreciate that, as a gift of food directly helps to sustain a person, but we have a large, helpful community through our daughter’s school that is delivering meals once or twice a week. (Although if you’re local to us, we could use some occasional help with the yardwork...)

You can also send donations to the ALS Center at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
(see http://pennstatehershey.org/web/neurology/patientcare/specialtyservices/als for more details).

Finally, Advomatic will likely be setting up a fund to help for when I’m unable to work any longer, and to provide a legacy for my family. Please contact Aaron Welch if you are interested in contributing to this.

Thanks,
Aaron Winborn

"It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth - and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up, we will then begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had." - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

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