me’s blog

Some of you may know that for a while now I’ve been concerned
about and borderline irritated with my wonderfully awesome 68-year-old dad
for the way he’s been becoming increasingly feeble and slow and
tentative.  The biggest source of frustration has been the apparent lack of
any concrete reason for his steady decline.  Though he seems to have been
exhibiting signs of Parkinson’s Disease for the past few years, his doctor constantly and
repeatedly assured him that it was definitely not Parkinson’s.  It was just kind of happening, and my sister and I were supposed to
just kind of watch it happen.  As if! 

Lately we’ve been putting gentle pressure on mom to confront his
doctors and find out what’s really going on.   She has a way with
doctors.  And I don’t mean that in a dirty way.  Anyway, this weekend,
upon returning from their two-week cruise through the Panama Canal, the
parental units informed us that mere days before departing on the cruise they’d
learned that, in fact, dad does have Parkinson’s.

How’d they find out?  From a box on some medication that was prescribed
to dad which explicity says "FOR PARKINSON’S DISEASE" in bold letters.
This, of course, raised their eyebrows, so they asked the doctor, who
then and only then confirmed that yes indeed, dad does have
Parkinson’s.  Fortunately one of dad’s best friends from high school
also happens to be his lawyer.  Rest assured that they’ll be looking into this.

And me?  I’m sure the shock of it will hit me at some point, even though it didn’t really come as that much of a surprise.  But for now I’m still in the stage of being relieved.  Relieved to know that he
actually has something.  Relieved to know that we weren’t imagining
it.  Relieved to know that we weren’t just being too sensitive.
Relieved to know that it’s something that he can treat and fight.  It’s
TOTALLY the two-part "Sick & Tired" episode of Golden Girls, at the
end of which Dorothy finally finds out that despite what a multitude of
dismissive doctors have told her, she’s not crazy.  She actually does
have a real illness.  There’s that brilliant exchange in the restaurant:

DOROTHY:  Waiter, bring us a bottle of your best champagne!

WAITER:  What are we celebrating?

SOPHIA:  My daughter has a debilitating disease!

WAITER:  I see.

DOROTHY:  And it has a name!  I’m THRILLED!

WAITER:  Of course.

I mean, Michael J. Fox has had Parkinson’s for over a decade now, right?  And
he’s still kickin’.  So I’m not too worried about dad.  Who knows?
Maybe he too will write a book.  Or guest star on a reunion episode of
Family Ties.  God knows recently-arrested Brian Bonsall could use the
work.  And it’s always a pleasure to see the delightful Justine Bateman back on tv.

But I digress.  Point is, dad rocks, and he is going to get the best
care Georgetown can offer.  And fortunately he’s got his two kickass kids and his super wife to help get him through it.  ‘Cuz that’s what family is for.  And there ain’t no nothin’ we can’t love each other through.  What would we do,
baby, without us?  Sha-na-na-na.

Yet again I - and an obediently sitting good dog named Ubu - digress.  I’m curious if any of my three (are we up to three yet?) faithful readers have had any experience with Parkinson’s Disease.  If so, could you share some of your experience, strength, and hope with me?  If not, please just keep both of my parents in your thoughts or prayers or whatever.  Good vibes from family ties are what help me remain the smiling, happy guy I am.  And extended family and friends count as family too.  I mean, think about it.  If not for them - and for one Very Special Episode On Alcoholism - the world may never have been introduced to the talents of Tom Hanks.  Or, for that matter, Marc Price.

What a sad world that would be.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 7:15 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.