The signs were all there, but Robert Starling just thought he needed a stronger prescription for his eye glasses.

After working in the house and around the yard, most people collapse on the couch at day’s end.
But not 62-year-old Starling.
“He just goes and goes,”  said Robert’s wife, Debbie, 51.  “He’s the type of guy who always has to do something, always has to be on the go.”
It’s that characteristic that brought Debbie to believe something was amiss when she consistently found Robert on the couch when she came home from work.
“I would ask him if something was wrong and he’s just say,  ‘No, just got a little headache,’ ”  she said.  “So I thought, OK, most people usually just take an aspirin and it’s over. But this went on for awhile.”
Robert was also having difficulty seeing out of his left eye, trouble balancing, and one night he completely forgot the conversation he was having with his son, Conor, 12.
“At that point, I thought maybe it was early Alzheimer’s,”  Debbie said.
Earlier this year, at his wife’s request, Robert called his eye doctor, Dr. Neil Hook, and scheduled an appointment.
What Hook found completely astounded Robert.
“Basically, he said that there’s something there that wasn’t there the last time and to get an MRI right now, right this minute,”  he said.

While examining Robert’s peripheral vision using a visual field test,  Hook had found a tumor – a glioblastoma multiforme, grade 4, the worst kind.

 

For more details on this story, see the July 31 issue of Navarre Press or subscribe to our online edition.