If anyone is interested

I have been out of the loop baseball wise since my youngest son, Paul McIntosh, graduated from Greenville Rose in 2009.


A few of you that have been around awhile may remember Paul. He pitched for Rose and helped RV and his teammates win a 4A state baseball championship against Kell in 2008. Paul wasn't a hard thrower by any stretch of the imagination. He was a slicer and dicer and proved you didn't have to throw hard to be an effective hs pitcher. He even had a few college opportunities to continue pitching but he chose the academic route and went to UNC. He is now in his 2nd yr of med school at UNC SOM.


A few yrs ago Paul develop Celiac which is okay but his liver enzymes were found to be elevated. It took a couple of years for the doctors to figure out that Paul had adult onset Pompe Disease which is a rare genetic progressive neuromuscular disorder that can lead to muscle atrophy and even respiratory problems. Paul lacks an enzyme in his muscle cells to break glycogen which can cause muscle atrophy. Usually it is not diagnosed until the patient has severe muscle problems in their 30's, 40's or 50's and often it is misdiagnosed as MS, ALS, etc. Paul is lucky though that he knows he has this disorder so he can plan things accordingly. Paul has no muscle problems at this time and he gets an enzyme replacement therapy every two weeks which hopefully will prevent any progression and or least slow it down.


I guess I am making this too long. Paul is training to run a marathon on March 15th in Raleigh and he is hoping to raise Pompe awareness and to raise money through the United Pompe Foundation to help people with Pompe that aren't as fortunate as himself.


Here is his story and link: Pompe Marathon | Nonprofits - YouCaring


If anyone is interested we would appreciate any kind of donation, no matter how small and you can do it anonymously. If now is not a good time for this and we totally understand, we would appreciate it if you can share his link on Facebook or any other social medium. Every dollar counts.


Thanks!


Thom McIntosh (drncvol)

 

Thom,

Thanks for the update on Paul. I was at the 2008 finals and remember himwell.

Unfortunately, this board does not receive much support fromreaders in the way of contributions other than ads for travel programs. Not sure how much traffic is generated any more, butit is nowhere near what it once was.

I believe Twitter was the end of it as a place for scores, andfor whatever reason, poster just don’t contribute like they did 5-10 yearsago. Plus not having Braves, or anyoneelse, driving it forward has resulted into little activity.

We will keep a good thought for Paul, and hope he runs wellin Raleigh.

 

I use to really enjoy the baseball talk here. I didn't realize it was not as busy as a few years ago but things change (sometimes not for the better). I never thought Braves would not be here. Thanks for the info.