You hope it won’t happen, but sometimes it does: an emergency. Here’s one couple’s experience and recommendations. Only their names have been changed, at their request.

One of the principal responsibilities of Medicaid is to pay for nursing home care for those who qualify for this federal health care assistance program.

If you’re going into a nursing home and your state disqualifies you from receiving benefits because your income exceeds the Medicaid limit, you may feel as if you’re swimming against a strong current: You can’t qualify for nursing home Medicaid benefits because your monthly income exceeds the income cap, but you don’t receive enough monthly income to pay for your nursing home without help from Medicaid. What to do?

Embryonic stem cells can become motor neurons

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced online on Jan. 30, in Nature Biotechnology, that they’ve developed a chemical recipe to coax human embryonic stem cells to develop into motor neurons, the muscle-controlling nerve cells that are lost in ALS.

Xue-Jun Li and colleagues used two federally approved lines of stem cells and exposed them to retinoic acid early and to several other compounds later on.

No ramps. No grab bars. No elevators. No access. No fair.

Although the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been federal law since 1990, in many places accessibility still isn’t a reality.

Like those of other fields of technology, followers of the assistive technology industry can now anticipate annual unveilings of new products.

Several assistive items that can have an impact on quality of life were launched at recent, turn-of-the-year conferences and trade shows and will be of interest to people with ALS:

Major life functions that diminish or disappear because of ALS are what make the disease so brutal.

But the loss of the ability to complete the simplest everyday tasks — changing the TV channel, turning on a light, adjusting a thermostat, making a phone call — can also create considerable frustration.

That’s where an environmental control unit (ECU) can make a difference.

An ECU is a high-tech device that enables people to operate various appliances in their homes, offices or other environments through one centralized controller.