The Parkinson’s Party Bus

You know that disease old men get when their hands shake and they shuffle along like their slippers are too big? That disease that Michael J Fox has and the lead singer from 80’s band A-HA has just announced he has it too? Parkinson’s disease seems to be very ‘in’ right now, it even had a whole month dedicated to it a few weeks back.

The thing is I’m not a man, I’m not that old either, well not elderly anyway, I was only 48 and yes i did have the shakes in my hand a bit but what about my dead leg?

So, when i heard the immortal words ‘You have Parkinson’s Disease’ i ignored it for 2 years and pretended it was nerve damage from a whip lash injury. That was working really well for me until my body had seized up almost entirely and I was finally forced to admit that I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

When i finally got to see a different consultant, I couldn’t face letting the first one know he’s been right all along, all the tests were run and the same diagnosis was given which i now had to accept. I was at the point where getting dressed, having a shower, even cutting up my own food was almost too exhausting to achieve, so I took those pills and waited for a miracle. At least it wasn’t a brain tumour or Motor Neurone disease, I was lucky.

Now the thing with Parkinson’s is it affects everyone differently. So as far as i was concerned there was little point doing any research on it. I don’t really want to know all the hundreds of little tricks that Mr P might play on me. I’m just focusing on the cocktail of pranks Mr P has picked for me at the moment. And that’s how i think of it, Parkinson’s is that irritating individual that likes to trip me up, or give me a dead arm or pains in my feet. A bit like the school bully. If I take the pills sends Mr P to sleep and he leaves me alone for a few hours, until he learns how to bypass the meds and then the practical jokes begin again.

When the new meds started to work it was a revelation. I knew the reinstated mobility and fine motor skills were only going to last until Mr P works out how to bypass them again so i made a decision. If I am going to ride the Parkinson’s Party Bus, which i have just learned is the biggest neurological disease right now, then i was going to make the most of the movement I still had. Not by doing anything heroic like walking up a mountain or the length of the country, but by doing the things on the ‘One day List’

One day I’m going to learn to paint with watercolours - done. One day I’m going to learn to knit socks - done. One day I’m going to write a book - done and already started book two, you get the idea.

As a Parkinson’s Participator (i hate the word sufferer) I will do whatever takes my fancy, learn whatever I suddenly find an interest in and make the most of the time on the Parkinson’s party bus. Yesterday I bought a wooden chair I didn’t need and have nowhere to put, from the auctions just because I liked it. I found out today that it’s most likely the only one in the country and was made in 1700-1710, i paid £26 for it and that makes me very happy. I will let you know its value if i ever get a valuation on it.

So that is what this is all about, I can’t tell you exactly what i will be writing from now on because i don’t really know where the Parkinson’s Party Bus is going to take me. I can’t even say how often I will be writing, how about i just write when i have something to tell you worth reading? Of course if you aren’t interested in the unexpected ramblings of a fifty something mother of three grown up children, who has an unhealthy obsession with antiques and happens to have Parkinson’s disease then maybe this isn’t for you. Oh, and if you notice my punctuation is a bit off sometimes and that I’ve written ‘I’ in lower case instead of upper case its because i am a Parkinson’s participator and life is too short to waste on backspacing and correction. BTW do you like the chair?