Jacob Glasow knew something was wrong. He was having a hard time speaking without slurring his words. His wife, Sheena, hadn’t noticed, but after Jacob brought it up in December, she could hear it too. Still, they didn’t think much of it. A few months later, though, Jacob noticed twitching in his upper arms. Sheena wondered if it had something to do with undiagnosed sleep apnea, but a doctor didn’t think that explained all of his symptoms. Jacob had an array of tests done, including a brain scan that revealed abnormalities. After dozens of tests, Jacob and Sheena got a devastating diagnosis: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — ALS. “It was like a bad dream, honestly,” Sheena said. “Probably the first week, we went to bed crying every single night, woke up crying every single morning.” ALS, sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease, affects nerve cells in the brain and causes muscle weakness and, eventually, paralysis and death, said Steven Price, a neurologist at Neuroscience Group in Neenah.