Every six minutes, someone in the United States will be diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. My minute came in November of 2012.
I had been having trouble keeping my balance. I noticed that when I walked, I was lilting to the left. I couldn’t keep moving in a straight line. What did I do about it? Nothing! I didn’t feel a need to have it checked out. I just went on with my life.
A short time later I had a fall in a public place…Whole Foods. I was checking out a wine display when I again lost my balance. I fell and knocked over a bottle of wine…which fell onto another bottle of wine…and so on and so on and so on. It was like one of those cool dominoes tricks. The good news is no one was hurt, including me. The Whole Foods people were wonderful. They even gave me a bottle of wine as a parting gift so I could remember this episode….as if you could ever forget this.
I again did NOTHING!!
Now as someone who takes signs from the universe more seriously than they’re intended to be, for some reason, I ignored these. Then one night at Wrigley Field, I was at a Cubs game with a friend who is a pediatrician. While walking up a ramp, I walked into a wall…twice. My friend laughed at the first one, but when it happened again, he said, “What the fuck is that? What’s going on with you?”
I told him the story. He said I needed to get checked out, the sooner the better. I laughed at him, but when he threatened that he would call me every day until I did something, I took it somewhat seriously.
I saw a doctor, who referred me to a neurologist. We started doing some testing. It’s a lengthy process to get to a PD diagnosis. One way to get there is by eliminating everything else. In the middle of this, the neurologist had a stroke. Seriously! He recovered but took it as a sign that it was time to retire. Those damn signs! It was on to neurologist number two.
At this point, I was without health insurance, so I was dealing with the government health system. That meant going to Stroger Hospital for my care. That meant long waits to see a primary doctor, and even longer to see a specialist. But, we eventually got there. We went through the testing process again. And voila…we finally came to a diagnosis…
PARKINSON’S DISEASE!!
When I heard those words and started freaking out, my neurologist told me this: “Do some research. It’s not as bad as you think. You can live a long life with this. At least it’s not ALS. Most likely, you’ll die of something else.”
I walked out of his office not exactly reassured, but he was right. It’s more than a decade later and everything he told me has been correct. For someone who is ten years into this, I’m doing great. I’ve stuck around long enough that I even saw neurologist number two retire. I’ve outlasted two of them and am on to neurologist number three. She’s only forty-ish years old, so I’m fairly certain she’s the final one. That’s fine with me since I love working with her.
The reason for this story is that April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month. Maybe one person reads this and is moved enough to tell someone about it. It raises awareness, always a good thing. Maybe someone reads this and is moved enough to donate to one of the organizations whose goal is to either cure Parkinson’s or fund programs that make the lives of people living with the disease better. Those groups are the Parkinson’s Foundation and the Michael J. Fox Foundation. They’ll be ecstatic to take your money!
That’s my Parkinson’s story. In fact, that’s the story that helped to start this blog/column/newsletter, hence the name “I’ve Got the Hippy Shakes.”
Today, I was reading something from the Michael J. Fox Foundation. It said, “Here. Until Parkinson’s isn’t.” Me, too, Mike. Me, too.
My Wife was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when she was 52 years old 4 years ago. The levodopa did very little to help her. The medical team did even less. Her decline was rapid and devastating. It was muscle weakness at first, then her hands and tremors. Last year, a family friend told us about Natural Herbs Centre and their successful Parkinson’s Ayurveda TREATMENT, we visited their website www .naturalherbscentre. com and ordered their Parkinson’s Ayurveda protocol, i am happy to report the treatment effectively treated and reversed her Parkinson’s disease, most of her symptoms stopped, she is able to walk and her writing is becoming great, sleep well and exercise regularly., she is pretty active now