In college you get courses with names. Psychology 101. English 101. Gym 101. OK, maybe not that last one, but you get the idea.

What about Symptoms 101?

That seems to be the number of symptoms associated with ALS and ALS-like neurological diseases. From Mayo Clinic:

Signs and symptoms of ALS vary greatly from person to person, depending on which neurons are affected.

Signs and symptoms might include:

• Difficulty walking or doing normal daily activities
• Tripping and falling
• Weakness in your leg, feet or ankle
• Hand weakness or clumsiness
• Slurred speech or trouble swallowing
• Muscle cramps and twitching in your arms, shoulders and tongue
• Inappropriate crying, laughing or yawning
• Cognitive and behavioral changes

That’s the short list of symptoms from Mayo Clinic and the most common symptoms for what might be typical ALS. I had none of those symptoms in the beginning and only one common symptom two years later— doing normal daily activities— that one related to a weak diaphragm and very weak back muscle.

That does not mean everything else is normal. It. Is. Not.

My smaller list of ALS-like symptoms are those that occur much later in ALS, specifically the respiratory problems that require ventilation. Add to that some weird muscle cramps, more fasciculations than those I have had for over 30 years, weakened voice, lack of appetite, weird movements, and a very wacky autonomic system which adds to the misery.

I haven’t done a full count of symptoms yet, but I’m sure the list would get to about 101.