April is Parkinson's Disease Awareness Month. It was featured in an article in the Yankton Press & Dakotan – but since I have first-hand experience with the malady, I will write about the P&D's piece with some semblance of accuracy.
The contents of the article should have given me advance warning of what I could expect.
My hand writing which was always so precise got smaller and smaller. It was a symptom of which I should have recognized. Gradually it got worse until my writing was hardly legible to me.
I should have known something was wrong when I couldn't be heard when I spoke to Phyllis, and she said "what" more than usual.
Then my legs began to give away and I was falling over backwards. It was very obvious that something was not right!
Now I'm confined to a wheelchair, and it's plain to see that I have Parkinson's Disease. At first I was diagnosed as having Parkinson's Look Alike mostly because I've never had tremors. Gradually it has developed into an affliction for which I couldn't find a cure.
I wanted to continue this column, and the only way I could do it was to dictate it to Phyllis (which turned out to be slow going). It keeps getting harder to find something to write about.
I should attend the workshops which the P&D suggested – but it's difficult to go when I don't attend church services or otherwise leave the house very much.
It's a horrendous disease which I'm doing my best to overcome and cope with – but I'm losing the battle piece by piece.
Meanwhile, we'll keep the column going as long as Phyllis can put up with it.
© 2010 Robert F. Karolevitz
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