Dr. Ross was diagnosed with ALS in April 2017, and in August 2018 he decided his ALS was bad enough that he needed around-the-clock care. He moved out of a house and into an apartment in Chapel Hill, N.C. Andrew now receives care mostly from Lora, employed by HomeWatch Caregivers. His ALS has been described by doctors as “especially aggressive”, but Dr. Ross has a very positive attitude.

1. On Oct. 9, 2018, Lora Bradley helps Dr. Andrew Ross walk across his apartment in downtown Chapel Hill, NC. Dr. Ross was
diagnosed with ALS in April 2017, and in August 2018 he decided that his ALS was bad enough that he needed around-
the-clock care. Andrew now receives care mostly from Lora, employed by HomeWatch Caregivers, and due to the
debilitating nature of ALS and the amount of time they spend together, Bradley and Dr. Ross have a very intimate
relationship.
“We are like mother and son,” Ross says. “She takes care of me while I slowly lose control of my body.”

2. Dr. Ross keeps this ALS band on his wheelchair as a reminder to just take his life day-by-day. The average life expectancy
for people living with ALS is three to five years, but Dr. Ross’s is especially aggressive and progressing more quickly.
“With ALS, every day is a new challenge for us, and we have to come up with innovative ways to solve whatever is
coming next based on how Andrew’s body is working,” Bradley says. “He keeps me on my toes!”

3. Bradley often transports Ross in a big body sling when he is not strong enough to walk. He uses the sling in order to use
the restroom and be lifted into his bed at night.
“ALS doesn’t stress me out,” Dr. Ross says. “The fact that I’m dying doesn’t stress me out. I can’t think about that because
it seems too far out. All I know right now is that I’m waking up tomorrow and doing something, and I take each day as it
comes. But I do feel like I’m living someone else’s life.”

4. Irene Zhu, a UNC Chapel Hill senior planning on going to school to be a physician’s assistant, walks with Dr. Ross through
the floors of his apartment complex on the evening of Oct. 25. On every floor of the apartment, the walls are filled with
original art donated by residents of the building, forming a sort of gallery. Before being diagnosed with ALS, Dr. Ross was
a photography professor at Radford University in Virginia, and still thoroughly appreciates art.

5. Most weeks, Dr. Ross receives new technology to cope with his ALS, which is why Rebecca West dropped by the apartment with
a new breathing machine. Lora Bradley sasses Dr. Ross while West jokes about death.
“There are so many people going in and out of my house all the time, and I have so many caretakers. Not all of my caretakers
are as great as Lora is either. I’ve had to fire some of them. Because of this, I never know where things are in my own house. So
I don’t feel like this is my home anymore. I’m just living here.”

6. Bradley helps Dr. Ross shower every other day.
“My privacy is the thing I miss the most,” Ross says. “My whole life in all of its forms is wide
open for the whole world to see. That’s what the disease has made me give up.”

7. Andrew Ross talks to his mother, Mary, about her recent visit with Andrew’s father on Andrew’s behalf to Radford University.
Andrew felt too sick that day so didn’t go. Mary Ross shows Andrew a past photo they all took at the university together, and Dr.
Ross tells his mother about the people she spent time with this time around. Mary Ross has Alzheimer’s and doesn’t remember
the people she met, so Dr. Ross is very patient with her.

8. Mary Ross does her best to entertain her son by rubbing his feet during his monthly ALS check-up at the Duke ALS
Center in on Nov. 8. She can’t do a lot for him, but still dotes on him.

9. Mary Ross and her husband John look on concerned as a doctor attempts to figure out why Dr. Ross has been coughing so
uncontrollably in the last week. Dr. Ross doesn’t believe that his lungs are getting weaker or that his ALS is the reason he is
coughing, but the doctors say that it is.

10. Dr. Ross goes to bed at the end of the day with oxygen to help him breathe more easily
and comfortably.
“At night is when I feel most helpless,” Andrew Ross says. “I don’t have the ability to
move, and I don’t have my phone or computer with me, which helps me communicate.
People also can’t hear me with this mask on, and my caretaker is in the other room at
night. So there are a lot of things that could happen at night, but I wouldn’t be able to
do anything about it.”