The day I found out I had Parkinson's Disease, the first people I told (aside from my family) were my iVillage friends on our old March 2001 Playgroup Board. That was back on October 1, 2001. In 2002, an old AOL Parkinson's board was transferred to iVillage and in less than a year I took over as the Community Leader where I've been ever since. I don't know how I could've faced Parkinson's without the love and support I've had daily on our iVillage Parkinson's board.
Tonight, I was digging around in the archives of the Parkinson's board and found this post of mine from November 2002 regarding an episode of ER when they introduced a new character with Parkinson's Disease
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-bhivhparkins/?msg=220
In that post I explained that as the other characters on ER learn that the new resident has PD, they all begin to discuss their concerns:
"Why did they accept a Dr with PD, did they need to meet a disability quota?"
"Maybe he seems okay now, but how is he gonna be in 10 years?" to which another responds, "Dead" and another says "or wishing he was Dead".
I know this show upset my son. I could see it in his eyes. He sees Mommy on "off" days, when the tremor seems to take over, he sees Mommy in the morning trying to manage despite the stiffness brought on by PD. I'm sure he has questions about the progression of my PD. We all do, but those aren't questions any of us can answer for him. Only time will tell...but last night's ER upset me, because it stereo-typed PD as a "Death Sentence".
I posted that almost 7 years ago to the day! It's been 10 years since my own symptoms of Parkinson's disease surfaced on December 8, 1999 and I can honestly say that living with this Disease does not make me wish I were dead. I feel very blessed that my disease has progressed slowly and I'm grateful that I've been able share my experience of living with Parkinson's daily here on iVillage so others can see that you can LIVE WELL despite the disease. It was a lesson I learned from my fellow iVillage Posters With Parkinson's, especially our member Ruben (lxsgpa) who's not only been with the iVillage Parkinson's board since it began, but he's been living with the disease for over 20 years!
I found another old post of mine from October 2002
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=iv-bhivhparkins&msg=249.2
In that link above, I was posting to another woman on the board who had been living with the disease for more than 10 years. I said:
How wonderful that while you say you are "disabled" yet you are still "able" to do so much for your children! What an inspiration for me, as I sometimes stop and wonder how life will (or may) be in a decade or so!
How profound. Seven years have passed since I posted those words and now it's almost the 10 year anniversary of the day my symptoms first appeared. Thanks to medications and a dedication to daily exercise and a healthy diet, I'm in better shape now than when I typed those words in 2002.
6100 posts later...we've come a long way baby ;-)
