Fighting the good fight ...
By Tony Di Domizio, Staff Writer
08/20/2008




MARK C. PSORAS/THE REPORTER

,Robert Wilderman is going to die, and he's ready for it.

The former biologist for Merck & Co.'s vaccine quality control division had his life changed forever a year ago.

That was when he was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, for the famous baseball player who suffered from ALS.

"I was depressed for a few days," he said, "and I decided to turn that negative feeling into something positive."

ALS fundraising is the effect of that positive energy, something he continues to do in conjunction with the Philadelphia ALS Chapter in Ambler.

Since his diagnosis, Wilderman, of Montgomery Township, has put his time and energy into fundraising and awareness of the disease.

One occurred June 29 at Reading Airport with the Porsche Club of America. About 50 people showed up and the $3,200 collected through raffles went to the ALS Association for patient care and research.

Wilderman's brother, Dr. Bruce Wilderman, a Doylestown-based cosmetic dentist at Artistic Expressions, has helped through a tooth-whitening event for ALS, with proceeds donated to the foundation.

The fundraisers will help Wilderman personally because all money collected will go to local patient care. Outings like visits to the aquarium, Philadelphia Phillies games and Longwood Gardens are funded through patient care.

"The association loans equipment to patients, like special computers that they can use with their eyes and wheelchairs for transportation," Wilderman said. "There's a lot of things they provide."

Wilderman is working on a donation program with Whole Foods. One such program is a success at CVS/Pharmacy, where money for ALS is collected at the checkouts.

"We will try to work with Shop 'n Bag, who is a big sponsor for ALS, and set up my own fundraiser with them, where they can collect money at the register," he said.

An event is being planned at the new car museum in Philadelphia, Wilderman said, through the help of the Simoeon Foundation in Philadelphia.

That same museum saw visits from Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld, both big car collectors, Wilderman said.

"We want to get Simeon to donate a car or Leno or Seinfeld to raffle off at the event as well," he said. "We are working on getting entertainers and singers to perform live in concert and donate proceeds to the ALS Foundation. Hopefully, we can raise several thousand dollars or several hundred thousand."

There are ALS walks set in October and November at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, and another in Allentown.

But Wilderman is battling a disease that has no cure. It is fatal. Some who get it progress faster, and others progress slower, like Wilderman.

"It starts out with tripping over your feet, then you can't swallow and you lose your ability to chew," he said. "You can't breathe. It affects your arm or leg first, then you

lose muscle strength and toning and your muscles atrophy."

Some die from ALS because they can't breathe and must go on a respirator or have a feeding tube put in to be fed because they can't swallow or chew.

Once, 30,000 people in the U.S. had the disease. Now, he said, 15 people a day are diagnosed and every 90 minutes someone dies from it. About 3,600 people a year are diagnosed with the disease.

ALS usually affects those between the ages of 40 and 70, with the median age between 50 and 60.

"I was diagnosed before my 61st birthday," Wilderman said.

In the beginning, Wilderman went through every test imaginable to diagnose the ill feeling he was suffering.

"I found the disease by finding another problem I had," he said. "It's good they found it early for me."

In 2004, he began having back issues, which was odd because he never had back problems before.

"I woke up in excrutiating back pain and I didn't know what it was," he said. "I finally went to therapy to strengthen my stomach and back muscles and had three steroid injections in my spine."

That helped for a year-and-a-half, and then the numbness in his right knee began. That was followed by muscle cramps in the ball of his foot when he was in the shower.

"It started getting worse and I thought it was related to my back," he said. "I went to neurosurgeons, and I got the same opinion from them."

They told him he had herniated discs and surgery corrected that.

In the first three weeks of healing, his whole shin went numb and he started limping. Another doctor's visit determined they had no clue what was causing the problem, and he continued therapy for six months.

"I started getting stronger," he said, "but I got weaker again."

After more visits to neurologists, he was sent to one final one in Philadelphia. She did some tests and EMG studies on a nerve to find blockage or damage.

"She saw something going on and didn't tell me," he said. "I think she knew right away, but it was too early on."

Another six months of pain, and another visit finally gave Wilderman his diagnosis.

"They told me that if I had the fast form of ALS, I'd be dead already," he said. "I think I already had it two to three years before that."

Wilderman has a death sentence and has accepted it.

"I'm prepared to deal with it," he said. "I had to change my whole life because of it. I'm definitely afraid, and there's no doubt it's going to happen, I just don't know when."

That's why Wilderman is doing the fundraising: it's a way of staying positive.

"There's a way of having some hope that there'll be a better treatment, a better cure," he said.

To help Wilderman's efforts, e-mail him at dlrwild1@comcast.net. Individuals may write a letter with a donation check to The Greater Philadelphia Chapter of the ALS Association, 321 Norristown Road, Suite 260, Ambler, PA 19002, or donate online at www.alsphiladelphia.org or www.alsa.org.

Contact the Ambler chapter at (215) 643-5434 and the national association at (877) GEHRIG-1.

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