| Updated: 9/02/2011 11:49 am |
Published: 9/02/2011 11:17 am |
It's routine check up time for 60-year-old Robert Cobbs of Pine Bluff.
"When I first noticed it was when I was trying to lift with my right arm," Robert recalls. "It starting feeling weaker. So I thought it was a lack of working out or exercising."
So Robert started lifting weights thinking he needed to build back lost muscle. But his arm kept getting weaker. He went back to his doctor.
"So he checked and that's when he said I'd probably have to see a neurologist."
His neurologist is Dr. Stacy Rudnicki at MDA's ALS clinic.
She diagnosed him with upper motor neuron disease, which is very similar to the muscle killing disease ALS.
"He's one of the lucky ones," says Dr. Rudnicki. "He has slowly progressive disease so he started with the disease in 2008 and he's still working. Pretty amazing."
"I can't take the long walks to work like I use to," Robert says.
No long walks, but this furniture salesman says he's determined. And he has strong support from home.
"For a man that's been so independent and taking care of you, now the role is kind of reversed," says his wife. "And you have to be innovative to think okay how can we do this today so you can maintain your independence."
Today they discover muscles around his diaphragm are weakening - making it harder to breathe. There's also weakness in his right leg.
Plus, there’s the medical bills.
"The first visit we had, Robert had to go through all these tests," his wife remembers. "I could look at him and I could tell in his mind he's thinking, all these bills, all these bills."
But all those bills were paid for by MDA.
"And I said, 'Lord, I just thank you,'" says his wife.
There's no timetable on Robert’s life-span but all his muscles will eventually disappear.
But after 25 years of marriage his wife is hopeful.
"I expect many more years, happy years" she says. " It might be a challenge, but he's such a hoot, always happy, always positive, so I look forward to the years."
