THIS IS MY FIGHT SONG (Part one)

Before heading into battle, you would be wise to evaluate your own strengths and your enemies' weaknesses.  Learn from the vets, those people who have lived with PD for a few years.  I can't call myself a vet yet, but I am nonetheless going to offer a tad of knowledge that might be of help.

It is true that you have choices

1.     There are no natural remedies.  I know because I have tried them all.  Doubters argue that I didn't  give them enough time to become effective; that they used them and "TA DA" no parkinson's . I've got news for them, if swallowing a caffeine pill for a year cures them, they never had PD in the first place.

2.      Don't dwell on your situation.  Surround yourself with positive people and be positive in your own outlook.

3.      It is OK  to google your symptoms but avoid anything to do with Multi System Atrophy or Lewy Body dementia.  It is OK to know what they are, but until your diagnosis tells you otherwise,  you just have PD.  In other words, if you hear the sound of hoof beats, think "horses" not "zebras".

4.       For most PWP, when they were first diagnosed, they fell apart inside.  The future was dark and scary.  Well, I am here to tell you that PD is not a death sentence; that I have been living a 95% normal life since late December 2010; that researchers are making great advances in the treatment and for a cure of all degenerative brain diseases.  The future is bright, but still a little scary.

5.       Get up off the couch and get active.  Exercise seems to be the only weapon that has any effect on PD.  Exercise and exercise again.  Currently there is no cure, but we can slow down our dark shadow with exercise.

6.       Start a blog.  Writing is therapeutic.  It's a place where you can purge all negative emotions - a sort of personal catharsis, if you will.  There are PWP out there who will read it.  I write because I like writing.  I didn't start blogging to purge my emotions and cleanse my soul.   I started writing because I enjoy it.  I found I could laugh at myself; although, if you look carefully, you might find the occasional intrusion of pain beneath the laughter.  Pain or not, try writing.  It is a release.

As for me, I start boxing next Thursday.  I might have to get a cigar and start asking "Howyou doin'?" I think I will wear lots of neck and finger bling.  No chance!  This boxing is strictly open for PWP.  I am looking forward to meeting some of them.  I didn't know there were about 6,000 of us in the province, or did he say 1,000?

Whatever.

I plan on being the next Rocky Balboa, but will probably end up channeling that Marlon Brando character in On the Waterfront  "I could've been a contender.  I could've been someone."



“In life and in a boxing ring, the defeat is not declared when you fall down. It is declared only when you refuse to get up” 

― Manoj Arora, Dream On