HEALTH
Battlin
A
An Oak Park woman is
using her mind to fight a
disease afflicting her body.
SUSAN WELCH
Special to The Jewish News
C
arolyn Leiderman's family is
her greatest joy, so it was
one of life's terrible ironies
that she found herself alone
in Rochester, New York, on
the day she was told that she was suf-
fering from Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis (ALS) and would probably be
dead within a year. Panic-stricken
and crying, she left the hospital and
ran aimlessly through the streets,
unable to focus on anything but the
knowledge that she was going to die.
"Now," says Mrs. Leiderman, 18
months later, "I feel different!' The
56-year-old Oak Park widow has not
forgotten the pain of her initial reac-
tion, nor does she minimize the
severity of her disease, but she has
overcome her despair and is concen c
trating on life, not death.
"We are all going to die and not
one of us can say when. I believe very
strongly that we set our own fate and
no doctor can say when our time is
up," says Mrs. Leiderman, who is
writing a book about her experiences.
Recording her feelings has helped her
come to terms with her fatal illness.
She hopes that sharing them will
help other sufferers and their
families.
Until that day in Rochester, Mrs.
Leiderman had never heard of ALS.
Seeking a remedy for slowness of
speech and a choking sensation which
doctors had suggested were psychoso-
matic, she was so far from suspecting
such a devastating diagnosis that she
had sent her son home to keep the
Sabbath with his family while she
awaited test results.
Although it is as prevalent as
Multiple Sclerosis and about four
times as common as Muscular
Dystrophy, comparatively few people
have heard of the progressively
paralysing neuromuscular disorder
which afflicts an estimated 4,600
Americans each year. Sometimes
referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease,
Carolyn Leiderman communicates via machine.
after the New York Yankee star who
died from it in 1941, ALS attacks the
motor neurons, causing paralysis of
the voluntary muscles.
In some victims, the limbs are
first affected. Others, like Mrs.
Leiderman, first lose the ability to
swallow and speak. While the body
degenerates, the mind remains alert
and unimpaired, making ALS, one
patient observed, "like having a
ringside seat to your own demise!'
Mrs. Leiderman is fighting the
disease and its mental anguish by
concentrating on the positive and by
continuing to live as normally as
possible. She agrees with fellow suf-
ferer, the late Senator Jacob Javits,
who said, "My advice to others with
this illness is to reconcile yourself to
your condition. Give it a fair portion
of your time and energy, but devote
yourself to what you love to do. Don't
be obsessed with the fact that you're
sick!'
Being unable to eat or speak has
struck hard at Mrs. Leiderman, but
she has refused to give up. She con-
verses by writing rapidly on yellow
paper, and through a portable
machine which plugs into a telephone
and transforms typewritten words in-
to sound.
"The machine!' she says, "is like
a new life!' With it she stays in touch
with clients in her work as an in-
surance agent and with family and
friends. "It has become my voice. My
family can tell my mood by the way
I type," she says.
A great believer in the power of a
positive attitude in combating dis-
ease, Mrs. Leiderman believes she has
a lot to be positive about. "I feel a very
strong religious belief. I feel God gave
us good. So all the bad I've had I com-
pare to all the good and I've been a
very gifted lady!'
Her family — five children, nine
grandchildren, her sister and her
84-year-old mother — is her "greatest
gift!'
Reconciliation with her illness did
not come easily, however. Initially, "I
was very angry with the disease!' And
it hurt to see her business suffer.
"I worked hard to build up the
business to where I am. Now I do not
write up as much new business as I
take care of renewals!' she says.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
93