Not in Kansas anymore

the long version

Studing by the light of a kerosene lamp, miling the cows and feeding the pigs before heading off to his one-room school house, Bob Paulson had a youth straight out ot the history books. Then he become one of Kansas State's first nuclear engineering students, earned a law degree at Georgetown, and moved to New York and success as a patent lawyer and family man. His life took another unlikely turn when he was diagnosed in the mid-1990s with ALS. He was already confined to a wheelchair and unable to move any limb when he woke up in an ICU in December, 2003 to find that henceforth, he would be dependent on a trach, a ventilator, and feeding tube, and round-the-clock care. Today he can only nod slightly and blink. Unable to speak, he writes and communicates with the aid of a computer. Still, he insists, "I am a lucky man," and he shows us why in this charming, detail-filled reminiscence. But what makes Not in Kansas Anymore truly compelling is the resounding "Yes!" it answers to the question of whether it is possible to adapt to change, stay upbeat and reamin productive despite a devastating illness. Bob's story will engange and inspire every reader.