Families for ALS

I met Dr. Andy Schroeder when I went to his partner, Dr. Paul Castle for some symptoms I was experiencing with my elbow. I always look forward to going to their office because of the family atmosphere. Also because during football season Andy loves to talk about the Green Bay Packers, or during baseball season the St. Louis Cardinals. We could literally talk about sports in general all day. I've only met a few guys more passionate about their sports teams than Andy Schroeder. Every two months or so when I start having symptoms I go see Paul or Andy for some ART therapy. Back in April I was in the waiting area and Andy came out of his office and was limping. I made the comment that he looked like he was getting old and starting to 'cripple up" as we say down south. Always the jokester he made some comment about how he was getting too old to continue to run in marathons. Later in his office while he was working on my elbow he told me something that took my breath. "You know how you mentioned my limp while you waiting to see me? Just so you know, I was just diagnosed with ALS". Well, obviously I just went blank. I didn't know what to say. What do you say to someone that tells you they have an incurable disease? In fact, he apologized to me for dropping the bomb so nonchalantly. Your first reaction is to try to convince them that maybe there was a mis-diagnosis or that they should see another doctor. He told me that he had been having the symptoms since the fall of 2010 when after running in the Chicago Marathon, he had a hamstring cramp that wouldn't go away. After seeing several doctors, he finally went to the Mayo Clinic and they confirmed the diagnosis. Of course he joked about it was just a bad cold. That's the kind of guy he is.

Andy Schroeder was born to help people and make them feel better. When something like this happens to someone like him, it just takes all the fun out of life for the rest of us. I hate it when people use the cliche "it put's things in perspective" because we should already have things in perspective.  The perspective is that everything does happen for a reason. Whether you believe in God, Buddha, a door knob, or a bag of cheetos, when we look back in 20 years on the impact that people or their circumstances have made in our little worlds that's when it might make some sense. For now all we can do is the best we can to make some sense out of it and help out those who are directly effected by it.

On Tuesday August 23rd, Andy's partner Paul is conducting the first annual Families for ALS golf outing at Hilldale Golf Course in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. The proceeds will go to the ALS foundation and to set up a scholarship fund for Andys daughter who was just born last fall. The golf outing starts at 9:00 am and later on Tuesday evening, a dinner and fundraising auction will be held at Chicago Prime Steakhouse. The format for the outing will be a 4-person scramble. We will have several skills contests as well as an opportunity to Beat The Pro on a par 3- if we can find a suitable professional to donate his time and mad skills.

Please be advised that I will be relentless in my pursuit to get as many teams as I can to participate in this endeavor. I will bother, shame, and pester everyone of you to field a team,  participate in every skills contest, and attend the dinner between now and August 23rd.  For more information and details and to register go to:    http://www.aaompt.org/

For those of you that are not familiar with Bruce Edwards. He was the caddy for Tom Watson who succumbed to ALS in 2004. Here is a short video about him.