American baseball great Dave Parker was, like me, diagnosed with PD four years ago. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette just posted an article about how he’s dealing with PD at the four-year mark, interviewing him as he gets ready to speak at an upcoming PD event. I was surprised at the similarities between his words and what I write myself on my blog. Click on the link above to read the entire article, but I’ll paste some excerpts below that resonated with me, especially if I had recently posted practically the same words myself:
Excerpt:
But when speaking about his own four-year battle with Parkinson’s disease at [an upcoming] conference in Green Tree Saturday, [Parker] will make sure patients, family caregivers, medical professionals and others attending know he’s still a fighter, and that everyone with the disease should stay active and spirited in meeting it headlong.
Me: Agreed, especially with the part I bolded. Sun’s coming up and it’s focused on the jugular jocular!
Excerpt:
“All my life has been about challenges,” Mr. Parker said in a phone interview from his Cincinnati home today. “I’ve still got that competitiveness in me. You’ve got to play the hand that’s dealt, and that’s the approach I’m taking.”
Me: Whoa! Took the words right out of my mouth! Here’s a snippet from a sonnet I posted a few days ago (bingo!):
The words flow from my mouth as happy talk,
And I accept the hand I have been dealt.
Excerpt:
Mr. Parker says he has been able to manage the disease through a medication, Carbidopa, and a regular workout regimen — weightlifting, stretching, stationary bike, treadmill — either in a gym or at home.
Me: I’m on Carbidopa (Sinemet), too (bingo!), and I try to work out regularly with a similar routine: weightlifting, stretching at home, cardio at the gym (stationary bike + elliptical trainer) (bingo!). Only difference here: I also swim (bingo!).
Excerpt:
“The key, really, is to be active,” he said. “To go out and socialize and walk and exercise. Parkinson’s has a tendency to make you want to sleep and not be active, and you’ve got to work beyond that. For me, I’ve got to take an athlete’s approach to it — force myself to go to the gym. … I’m managing the disease pretty well though — I know what to expect.”
Me: Whoa again! I just posted a sonnet on this, too (bingo!)! Here are the opening lines:
I wake up in the morning, and I’m tired.
I want to eat and go right back to bed.
My energy’s depleted, and my head
Is silty, sodden, saddened and quagmired.
Talk about parallel universes intersecting like a Venn diagram!
