SPEAR ESSAY
PHYSICIAN-IN-TRAINING/STUDENT CATEGORY Winner
March Flowers IN FEBRUARY
April Butler
I
sat in a neurologist’s office with my mom
and dad the spring before medical school,
finally consulting about my dad’s progres-
sive dysphagia, increasingly incoherent
speech and muscle weakness. My mother
bragged, as mothers do, to the resident and
physician that I would be starting medical
school in a few short months. My dad beamed
and gave me a knowing wink. After pleasantries were exchanged
and the neurologist examined him, he asked me my thoughts on
my dad’s symptoms. I was hesitant to speak - the only thing I had
researched that made sense was the one thing I was desperately
praying for him not to have. After a noncommittal response to his
question, he looked to my dad and said three letters in sequence
that changed our lives.
“We think you have ALS.”
My world was shattered. I briefly heard murmurs about diseases
that can mimic ALS and how there was no true confirmatory test for
ALS. The truest test would be the progression. My dad sat calmly,
as always, but he knew the gravity those three letters car