Write or Wrong

When I first had electricity turned on in my brain, my handwriting was worse than before and my fine motor skills were still poor. Two more sessions of deep brain stimulation (DBS) programming yielded continued improvement in the tremors, muscle, rigidity and dyskinesia, but my fine motor and writing were still a challenge.

“Are your writing skills essential?” my neurologist asked. I said this is what I do, so yes. So she made some adjustments. To my amazement, and I think hers a bit, too, she was able to get the setting so at least I could read my writing again. Nobody else can read it, but I can!

Now that I can write I find that I no longer can. Life is no longer funny because of what people say, do, or think about my Parkinson’s. I no longer struggle to cut tomatoes (Read more...). I have less to whine about in therapy (Read more...). I no longer can use a jockstrap as a symbol of my young onset diagnosis (Read more...). Harry Styles no longer shows up in my dreams (Read more...). I no longer throw baked fish across the roomful of people (Read more...). In fact, most of the time I don’t feel like I have Parkinson’s at all.

That’s the problem. I write about funny, unusual, or surreal things about having Parkinson’s. No one wants to read the truth. No one wants to read that DBS has been amazing for me, and that most of the day I don’t even think about Parkinson’s except when my alarm goes off to remind me to take the little bit of sinemet that I still take.

I feel like a football coach that has just won the championship and is asked about the other team. “They are a great group and they fought hard, but we won… Neener, Neener, Neener!” I am not that guy, though. I cannot brag about my status and I certainly do not want to rub it in that I had DBS and it is great for me.

But it is a great. DBS that is. And I must write. It’s what I do. My Parkinson’s continues to progress. I’m sure there is funny in that…until there is not. So give me a chance. I promise I will not rub it in your face.

Note: The next 5 or 6 What’s Shaking Man blog entries here will come fast and furious This because since I last posted I went to Europe where I went to the World Parkinson’s Congress, wrestled with Covid, experienced “fake news” from German taxi drivers, changed (or not) how I greet my neurologist, and other adventures I have written about. I could stretch these out to every two weeks, but these stories are losing their freshness. Besides I owe you a couple since I have not posted in awhile. Stay tuned…