A blog of disease, death and courage

Bruce Kramer (age 59) died of ALS on March 23rd 2015

When Bruce Kramer, a Minnesota professor of education, was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) - or Lou Gehrig's disease - in 2010, his world exploded. He knew what the diagnosis meant: progressive bodily atrophy, from a disease whose causes are little understood and that has no known cure.

Kramer began writing a blog [Dis Ease Diary] to capture the agony of his physical deterioration and his struggle to hold onto the splintered pieces of his life. He described his disease as "death by a thousand paper cuts," and it was an apt image: ALS was making changes that, day by day, could be all but imperceptible - but the overall effect of these small setbacks would be cataclysmic. At the same time, there was something that posed an even more immediate threat: unchecked anger and resentment, which could poison the time he had left to relish his life and loves.

Reference: Review: Blogging Death, and Searching for Meaning in a Painful Decline