It is Not a Death Sentence!

I don't often think of my own death (who really wants to), but when I do, I often think of a sentence I have uttered a thousand times:  "Nobody gets out of life alive".  It's true, isn't it?  I, like all of you reading this, will die someday, hopefully of old age, while I'm sleeping.  However, there's one thing I am not going to die of...

Parkinson's disease.

Why?  Because it's NOT a fatal disease, that's why.  If my tone sounds a bit like I'm annoyed, or a little angry, that's because I am.  I have been amazed at the amount of articles that say "so and so died today after a long battle with Parkinson's disease", implying or directly saying that this person died of Parkinson's.  

If you conduct a Google search on "Is Parkinson's fatal?", you come up with some interesting stuff, some of which is benign, and some of which is rather negative.  None of them say the disease is fatal, and neither does my neurologist!

From http://www.pdf.org:

The progression of Parkinson’s disease varies among different individuals.  Parkinson's is chronic and slowly progressive, meaning that symptoms continue and worsen over a period of years.  Parkinson's is not considered a fatal disease. And the way that it progresses it different for everyone:

From https://www.michaeljfox.org, one of the best sites out there:

Most doctors say that Parkinson’s disease itself is not fatal. You die with Parkinson's disease, not from it. However, as symptoms worsen they can cause incidents that result in death. For example, in advanced cases, difficulty swallowing can cause Parkinson’s patients to aspirate food into the lungs, leading to pneumonia or other pulmonary conditions. Loss of balance can cause falls that result in serious injuries or death. The seriousness of these incidents depends greatly on the patient's age, overall health and disease stage.

Then there's some website called http://wiki.answers.com, which responds to the question this way:

no, but at a certain stage in the disease, the quality of life of the person with the disease is almost nothing.

Really?  That's it?  They might as well have written in the next sentence, "Find the nearest bridge and jump, you loser!"

I'll give you a wiki answer.  Screw you!

Here is a perfect example of what I'm talking about.  Dave Jennings was a terrific punter for both the New York Giants and Jets from 1974 - 1987 (I am a Giants fan), and was a Jets broadcaster for two decades, and he recently died while suffering from Parkinson's disease.  I looked through his various obituaries, and nearly all of them implied or said that he died of Parkinson's.  This one, from www.sbnation.com, drove me crazy:

The former Giants punter and long-time broadcaster lost his battle with Parkinson's disease on Wednesday. He was 61 years old.

Sigh.  That was the only response I could muster because it was so ridiculous.  

These various headlines made me have to re-explain to my wife that this disease is not fatal, and it is prompting me to explain it to all of you.  I will probably have to do this for the rest of my life.  Oh well.  I could be worse, I suppose.  I could have a disease that actually IS fatal.  

Thanks for reading my rant.  I needed to vent.  Coming next:  It Seems So Obvious Now, Part 2.

Matthew 19:26

It Seems So Obvious Now

I feel compelled to write about my experience with Parkinson's disease, which is still relatively new to me.  Given the fact that I have not previously had any desire to share my life in cyberspace, I have concluded that God is prodding me to write this.  I have no other logical answer.  I also know that some  of you will judge me for telling my story publicly.  Judge away...perhaps this will eventually help you also.

The first symptom happened in my Forest Hills, NY apartment in 2001.  I was watching the Yankees on my couch, and my right thumb started doing its own thing.  It started as a small spasm for a few seconds, and then it would stop.  The spasm became rather violent, and then magically disappeared...for a while.  Months later, the spasm came back, and persisted off and on for about ten years.

Other unusual things started happening.  Since high school I typed 70+ words per minute.  In 2009, I started feeling myself struggle at the keyboard...of course, my "struggle" was 50+ wpm.  But still, it was unlike me.  I chalked it up to age and stress.  I was a Human Resources Director and I dealt with a very high-maintenance employee base.  Their default setting was pissed off, and that was on a good day.

In 2010, I felt this unusual cramping in my right hand while using a mouse.  On days when I used my laptop, I noticed that it was much easier to use a mouse with my left hand.  Some weeks later, my right hand actually had to think about what it needed to do, something that was as automatic as breathing for 30 years.

That same year, I would be overcome with these bizarre panic attacks, almost always when I was alone...I made sure of that.  I told my primary care doctor, and he gave me a prescription that made them disappear...for a while.  After you take a drug that you no longer need, it turns on you, and that's what happened to me, so I told my doctor and stopped the prescription immediately.  I have not had a panic attack since.  Still, I wondered why...

Then, on February 8, 2011, my HR position was eliminated.  My life just became more interesting.  My physical condition did too.   And my thumb.

Until next time...

Philippians 4:13