January 25, 2008
Craig is a now a proud father of a five month old son named Riley Tate who he gets to see a couple of days a week. Craig's mother and father are his primary caregivers now. He is still able to transfer with assistance from chair to bed and ambulate a small distance.
Craig remains strong in his faith as he faces continuing challenges. Craig is weaker now and swallowing is hard. His lung capacity has dropped but he is not on oxygen yet but a bipap machine to help him breathe at night is on the way.
Craig is always upbeat and enjoys children, especially his nieces and nephews and, of course, Riley. He has a softer voice now and has trouble talking on the phone. So don't call, come by to visit!
pictures will be included.

It has been a long time since my last entry. Let me catch you up. In April, we moved to Missouri to live with my parents. My brother Doug and his fiancée Tonya also moved in with us. We have been one big happy family. At the end of May, me and some buddies went to British Columbia bear hunting. We had a blast, and it was a hunt of a lifetime. Check out the pictures! In June, Erin started a new job in St. Genevieve. She is doing inside sales for an industrial valve company. In July, she started working at Anheuser-Busch part-time on the weekends. This has kept her very busy, but she likes both jobs. Physically, I have been slowing down quite a bit. We are now building a new house that will better suit my needs. I will try and keep updated photos on the site. It is an exciting time! Soon we will be initiating an aluminum can recycling effort. Stay tuned for details.

Per Josh Freeman:


Hello to everybody. I hope that you are all doing well. First of all, if I am missing anybody, you know of any additions, or if you know of any changes, please advise and I will add them to the list.
The ALS-STL chapter is again having the walk to defeat ALS this summer. It is on JUNE 24 at STEINBURG RINK in FOREST PARK. Last year we had a great turnout and a good time was had by all. We also raised a good ammount of money that goes to a great cause.
I have registered Team Thomas on the website www.alsa-stl.org You can click on fundraising, walk to defeat als, and then go from there. Click on the walk for Steinberg rink forest park, click here to join a team, type in team thomas, and click join and enter appropriate info. Or you can let me know and I can do that for you.
I can again have the barbq the night before. It was a good time last year. Thanks for your time, and let me know if I can do anything to help.

Josh Freeman
9831 Ione Lane
St Louis MO 63123
joshfreeman1@yahoo.com
314 803 3986 (cell)
314 544 8835 (home)

Hello to everybody. Things are going pretty good here in Nebraska. We are preparing for our move to Missouri. The weekend of March 24 will be the big move. For any of you that live in Nebraska, the ALS Association is putting on a going away party for us on Tuesday, March 21 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The party will be at a restaurant in West Omaha. If you need directions, please call the ALS Association office at 402-991-8788. This will also be a fundraiser as the restaurant is donating a portion of the proceeds. It will be sad leaving everyone here in Nebraska, but the move is necessary. It will be good to see family and friends from home more often.

I had some mercury fillings removed this week, along with a hemangioma from my right index finger. All minor stuff. I Have started a couple new treatments, one being IGF-I injections, which is basically like a shot of insulin. The second is cortisol. Both are to help relieve fatigue symptoms. There are both somewhat irregular treatments in that insurance is not covering the cost. So, we're very thankful for all the donations that helped make these alternative treatments possible. Finally, after visiting with my Lyme disease doctor in Colorado Springs, we decided to cease the treatment for three weeks. And next week when I start back up, I will be on a lower dose. The theory is that I had too many bugs in my system, and too many were being killed off at one time. This resulted in an inflammation of my symptoms. So we are going to try a lower dose to see if we get better results. This too is somewhat experimental, and that process will be trial and error. Our motto now is low and slow. We'll see what happens. Until next time, everyone take care. Thanks again for all the support. We couldn't do it without you.

This is just a brief update on what's been going on lately. We just returned from a visit to the St. Louis area, where Erin had her last interview with Anheuser-Busch. The interview went great, and we are just waiting to hear back on the final offer. We were pleased to have the opportunity to visit the Bouchard's, Clauser's and Freeman's on Saturday night at Brad and Sarah's new log home. Brad has got us all pumped up on building a log home ourselves. We'll see what we can do. Today we purchased an infrared sauna. I will use the sauna to rid myself of toxins. This is an alternative treatment to cope with my symptoms. Since today was a good day, I will highlight the tasks that I performed today. I woke up about 8:30 a.m., but I didn't roll out of bed until 10. My aunt Debbie fixed me oatmeal and sliced strawberries for breakfast. I checked my e-mail at 11:00 a.m. From 11:30 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m. I made a few phone calls to some doctors and other places to get my disability paperwork in order. Aunt Debbie made pizza for lunch. At about 1:15 p.m. I had my first session in our new sauna. Erin gave me a quick shower and was out the door to work at about 2:00 p.m. Aunt Debbie spoonfed me my morning regimented of pills. At about 2:30 PM Buddy was going crazy because he had spotted a cat in the yard. The chase was on, but when a dog is attached to a leash the cat will always win. At 3 p.m., we headed into town to run some errands. We drop some forms off to the neurologist, we gave the speech pathologist some and insurance information, and did some shopping at target. We returned round 6 p.m. we ate leftover pizza and Jell-O and peaches for supper. At 7:30 p.m. I started working on the computer again. Today is unusual in that I have not had a nap yet. I would consider today a good day. At 8:30 p.m., I will have my IV treatment. After that, I will probably have a light snack and go to bed around 10:30 p.m. Of course I will have to have my nightly regiment of pills administered before bed. So, that is a typical day in my life. Pretty boring, right? I had someone request for me to talk about the treatment in China. I'm gathering some research so that I will be able to effectively communicate what is going on there. That is all now, take care.

I talked the web site guys into making this link up for me last year, and never really used it. So, from now on I have decided to make entries into this journal on a regular basis. I would like to give people who want to know, an insight into my daily life. Also, I feel this would be a good way to leave documentation of my own thoughts and feelings for people to read. Hopefully I won't bore everyone who reads this. I've never been a great writer, so you will have to bear with me as I try to communicate effectively. Stay tuned, and we will see what damage I can do. If there is a particular topic you would like me to give my expert opinion on, e-mail me the topic and I will try to B.S. my way through it (craigt46@hotmail.com). Let's have some fun!

ALS is a very difficult and complex disease in many ways. It renders its host paralyzed, yet the ability to feel and think remains. It sucks every ounce of energy from every tissue leaving its captive hopeless and defeated. The more a person with ALS fights back, the quicker the disease progresses. Since I cannot physically defeat this progression, I have chosen to attack it on a different front. Through awareness, I feel that breakthroughs for the treatment of this disease are on the horizon. Just like everything else in this world, fighting this battle is time-consuming and expensive. I'm not asking you for money. All I'm asking for is you to raise your voice. I feel that there are many deficiencies in our country's health-care system. These deficiencies apply to all disease, not only ALS. Diseases are looked upon as a capitalistic opportunity for businessmen. Yes, competition is good, but not when dying people are involved. I feel that if we can give scientists an environment to research freely based upon merit, then we will start unlocking medical mysteries. This battle starts at our government's highest level. With national registries, diseases will be tracked on a nationwide basis, versus being tracked by individual doctors. Only then will we get a better picture of what is going on with the diseases. I've chosen to fight so that someone 10 years from now will not be in my same situation. With help from people like you, we can make a difference. Will you join my fight?

The Lord has blessed us in so many ways. I just wanted to give thanks for a couple of special friends who have made this website possible. Here's to you Bryan and Shanna!

Here is a link to story done on Craig visiting his old grade school.

http://www.dailyjournalonline.com/articles/2005/10/27/community/news5.txt

Bryan

Tad Cleve, the owner of www.emallcentral.com, is donating 40% of the sites earning to Craig and his family.

Please stop by and start your Christmas shopping early!

Bryan