Even though he navigates sometimes trying days living with a neurodegenerative disease, Jim O’Brien, of Fort Dodge, doesn’t fixate on the dwindling days he has left, or the lifelong enjoyable tasks he may leave behind.

Instead, O’Brien works to go with the flow, depending on what he’s able to do on a particular day.

“Take life as it comes,” he said. “You can still live every day of your life to the fullest. Life around you still goes on, so it is important to enrich yourself.”

Moreover, when people tell O’Brien they wouldn’t be as mentally tough as he is in living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, he demurs.

-Submitted photo
Jim O’Brien, of Fort Dodge, participated in a lobbying trip in June 2024 with hundreds of others in support of Paralyzed Veterans of America. O’Brien will become the president of the Iowa Chapter of PVA in October.

“It doesn’t seem tough to me. I think about going in the right direction,” he said, while often invoking spirituality and religion in a half hour chat.

“My life is reduced to mind, body, and spirit,” he added. “Even though my body is failing, yet I’m all one … in mind and spirit, I am fully intact.”

O’Brien, 65, grew up in a family of four kids. He graduated in the Fort Dodge Senior High School Class of 1978, and went into the Air Force after graduation.

He returned home to work construction jobs for a few years, then found his career, working for the Webster County Sheriff’s Office through 2010, before retiring due to a foot injury.

He was diagnosed with ALS in early 2022. The average length of time for people to live after getting ALS is two-and-a-half to five years, although a few may reach 10 years.

-Submitted photo
Jim O’Brien won a gold medal in trap shooting at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games.

ALS is a deceptive neurodegenerative disease, as motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord slowly wither and die. That results in an inability to control muscles, so that eventually a person with ALS loses the capacity to speak, eat, move, and breathe.

Over the last 18 months, O’Brien has experienced muscle weakness that has resulted in a loss of balance, the inability to walk or stand for any length of time, difficulty breathing, and swallowing, he said.

The formerly active man who bicycled and played racquetball now moves by wheelchair and gets in-home care. He vows to be as active as possible in keeping up with people socially in Fort Dodge.

O’Brien has been heavily involved with mentoring other people across the U.S. who also have the fatal ALS diagnosis. He has delved into supporting the Paralyzed Veterans of America organization, and will be taking that to a new level, in becoming president of the Iowa PVA chapter, effective in October.

“Our advocacy for veterans is across the spectrum,” he said.

For a second consecutive year, O’Brien went to Washington, D.C., among hundreds of Paralyzed Veterans of America members on a lobbying trip, speaking to such lawmakers as U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa.

“It was extremely powerful for me … I attribute all this to God, as he has called me to serve others, even in the face of adversity,” O’Brien said.

It now comes readily for him to extol the need for more public places becoming accessible to all, in line with the Americans With Disabilities Act, so they can have “true mobility.”.

Last year. O’Brien, won several medals, including three golds, at the 43rd annual National Veterans Wheelchair Games. He planned to return this summer, but a scheduling conflict nixed that.

Still, he often goes to the Iowa Central Community College trap shooting range for one of his most enjoyable sports pursuits.

“I have still been able to trap shoot this year, (although) certainly not as much as last year. That has been an absolute blessing to me. When I am (doing that), I am not thinking that I have ALS. It is therapeutic beyond belief,’ he said.

O’Brien has three adult children ranging from age 35 to 40, including two living in the Fort Dodge area. He said they didn’t initially understand his highly positive outlook on life, “in spite of having a terminal illness.”

Just as O’Brien testifies to others with ALS, he also wants to model a graceful acceptance to his immediate family.

“Death is a natural part of life, just like birth,” he said. “God has given me an opportunity to let them know that, regardless of what happens, things are generally gonna be alright.”