Horrible and sickening news. ALS is a completely torturous disease - for both the people afflicted with it as well as their families. Don't know what it is or how it affects people? Here is a very condensed version of it from my own experience - I lost my mother to it.
Your body has motor neurons and sensory neurons (neurons = nerve cells). Whenever something touches your skin - like an insect crawling across your skin - you can feel it. That's the job of the sensory neuron. It can sense if something is too hot, too cold, itchy, scratchy, painful, etc.
Motor neurons are the nerves that make it possible to control your muscles. A signal from your brain is sent down these motor neurons through an electrical signal, and then your muscles contract - happens when you walk, point at something, eat, swallow, breathe and even controls the beating of your heart. They differ in the types themselves - as breathing and heart beating is an automatic response that you don't have to 'think about' in order to accomplish the task.
So what happens in this disease? The nerve cells are covered in a myelin sheath - this is like the insulation in your home's electrical wiring (somewhat). It allows for the electrical signal that your brain generates when you want to move something like your arm to grab your coffee mug. ALS starts destroying this sheath, and that signal start to degrade over time. You will get 'clumsy' at times - tripping, or spilling things on yourself, etc. Eventually it progresses and it starts to paralyze you - you will not be able to send the signal for you to move your arms and legs, and then stuff like swallowing. You will start choking on food regularly.
Unfortunately, your sensory neurons pretty much stay intact - at the very least, they don't seem to degrade at the same rate if at all. You will be able to feel everything, but you won't be able to move. Suddenly get a cramp in your leg? You will suffer through it until someone can move it for you. Bed sores? Maybe have a bug crawling on you? You feel every little thing, but you can't move your leg out of the way, or swat that insect away, or do anything about it. Your mind will stay completely lucid through this whole disease. You will be 100% completely aware as you lose more and more control over your body. At the end of this torturous journey, eventually your breathing ends up stopping.
This is a horrible thing that Chris Snow is going to have to endure. Make no mistake - there is probably 5 diseases that I can think of that can be more torturous. Being completely lucid throughout makes it even more difficult in certain ways. Seeing this disease unfold on my mom actually made me stop believing in a God, to be honest.
I absolutely feel horrible for Chris Snow. I also feel horrible for his family. People may not realize how much his family is going to endure with him. We had to carry our mother to and from the wash room. We had to do everything that she was unable to do. On top of this, we were always at heightened stress levels as we needed to make sure that she wasn't choking (this starts happening more and more as you lose control of your ability to swallow). She needed 24/7 care, and we made sure to give this to her. I remember this time well, and my heart goes out to Chris Snow and his entire family. Treatments and the resultant prognosis doesn't seem to have improved much since my mom went through this, but at least I hope that the support system has grown much more robust. This absolutely sucks in the worst way possible for Chris and his family. My thoughts are with them.
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