Customer Reviews

River of Hope: My Journey with Kathy in Search of Healing from Lou Gehrig's Disease

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To overcome an unbeatable disease is viewed by the established medical community as impossible. "River of Hope: My Journey with Kathy in Search of Healing from Lou Gehrig's Disease" is the personal story of Kathy Tank, as told by her husband who was alongside her every step of the way. When doctors wrote her off as doomed, she was determined to beat her Lou Gehrig's disease, and never stopped searching until she did. With great insight to the nuances of this ailment, "River of Hope" is a compelling biography and especially recommended for anyone with a family member with Lou Gehrig's disease or who are themselves afflicted.

I just finished reading the book on Kindle. I appreciated the fact that this book was available on Kindle, because I have ALS and this makes it difficult for me to turn pages on regular books.

The onset for me was with my right hand weakness, and I have been using breathing machine for 3.5 yrs. I've picked up a lot of good tips from reading Kathy's and David's creative approach for handling day to day challenges living with ALS.

This book was very heart warming and up lifting for me. Thank you David for sharing Kathy's story. Reading this book gave me the encouragements I needed at this point in my life. The book is inspirational, captivating, and very well written.

If you are experiencing muscle weakness, slurred speech or other symptoms of neuromuscular disease, read this book first. Don't wait for an "official" medical diagnosis to see if you have Lou Gehrig's disease. The pharmaceutically-based medical system has nothing to offer you and may even be one of the causes of your illness. "River of Hope" gives insight into the medical system's failing approach to dealing with this disease, and offers hope that healing is possible through alternative approaches to health care and changes in your lifestyle. You will also want to read "Eric is Winning" ERIC IS WINNING !!: Beating a Terminal Illness with Nutrition, Avoiding Toxins and Common Sense and "Surviving Without Your MD" SURVIVING WITHOUT YOUR MD, both by ALS survivor Eric Edney.

My heart goes out to David & Kathy for what they went through, but all the same I can't recommend this book. I found the writing dull and often repetitive. I also was most perplexed by the conclusion that even though Kathy died after a fairly short course of the disease, that she had "won" because a blood marker that was supposed to be informative had reached a suggested level at the time she died. Mostly, I find the idea of working entirely outside of the professional ALS doctors just plain scary. Yes, the standard medical practice does not give much hope for those of us with the disease at this point, and yes I do believe there are approaches outside of standard medical practice that might help, but I would be very suspicious of any approach that advises you to drop your neurologist. If the best minds in neuro research can't figure this out yet, it seems unlikely that someone focusing on mercury amalgams or vitamins would be able to do so. You can't figure out this horrible disease via internet research. That said, everyone dealing with ALS has to find their own way through it.