Yes, I have been writing. I know I haven't posted much. Between work and travel, I'm pretty much tapped, so I've been doing my writing at Health Union's Parkinsonsdisease.net (home of lots of great writers!). For that, I give you the last 5 posts to that site. I'm in the process of getting ready for a podcast with them, so I'll be writing more soon... provided the allergies and sciatica I'm currently feeling let me!
Enjoy those and these photos from Greece!
In the world of disabilities, one of the top “don’t say this to me” statements is “but you don’t look sick.” In what it can infer (quit your whining, pull up your britches, and get on with it), it’s easy to see why. No one wants people to call them a drama queen/king, let alone a liar or someone looking for false sympathy. Instead, we want people to show real empathy for our plight, even if we know it can’t be fixed. Simple comforting feelings go a long way, especially if many of our symptoms are hiding or “invisible.”
Hiding Not Hiding Parkinson's in full....
“What is pain like for you?” people often ask me in many different ways. For instance, someone will wonder, “Do your Parkinson’s tremors hurt?”
They’re annoying, but not painful. Sometimes my left knuckles will hurt from the dystonia in my “claw,” but the tremors are just my “normal.” I guess you could say that I shake because I have Parkinson’s. I shake right through my meds, though at a much-reduced rate. Thank you, Amantadine.
Recently, on one of the Facebook groups, a woman asked if she should travel long distance since she has Parkinson’s disease (PD). The easy answer is that if she feels like she can, she should, but the more difficult answer is that “if the answer is ‘yes,’ then there are challenges a Parkie should be aware of before traveling.”
After taking the Weschler Individual Achievement Test, it took eight weeks to get my results since they had a lot of information to go through. From a 2-hour history of Parkinson’s discussion to the final six hours of the test, I was under the microscope. This analysis included my ability to read, respond, listen, calculate, perform, and play well with others in a “high-stakes” setting. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that some of the tests were fun…
But many weren’t.
Saturday, December 1st I woke up early. Because my PD doesn’t let me sleep in the way I would like, I decided to catch up on the hot baseball trade news on MLB TV. Instead, I was shown a graphic that former President George H.W. Bush had passed away. Having played baseball, they focused on that aspect of his life, but there was also a reminder in my brain that Bush had suffered from vascular Parkinson’s disease.
No comments:
Post a Comment