“Three weeks later, it happened again—only worse,” Dane recalled. “I couldn’t grip the chopsticks at all.”
The episode began what would become a nine-month search for answers to his unexplained symptoms, according to the memoir, which is scheduled for release Nov. 3.
Dane was ultimately diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, by University of California, San Francisco neurologist Dr. Mark Terrelonge. He wrote that he called Gayheart-Dane immediately after the appointment.
He told her the diagnosis was “what we feared.”
“I don’t remember a single word I said after that,” Dane wrote. “I remember only feeling a violent impact, like getting the wind knocked out of me, and Rebecca wailing on the other end of the phone. Then I really lose it, my sobs making my body shudder, as I hear her words pouring out through her tears: ‘I’m here, we’ll fight this together, I’m not going anywhere.’”