What Are You Ashamed Of, Rick?

One of Hoge’s “Tiny Commenters” (as defined by Ali Akbar) is a snot-dripping moron named Rick Buchanan. Rick claims to have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s when he was still a fetus, or some other such nonsense. At any rate, he claims he was diagnosed at a very young age.  He had deep brain stimulation because of tremors. Well, good. Good for Rick Buchanan.

I had deep brain stimulation when I didn’t need it because I was a perfect fit for a clinical trial to see if people in the early stages of Parkinson’s could survive DBS and tolerate the implantation of the devices long-term.

Rick Buchanan had DBS because he couldn’t handle the tremor. Poor lad.

I had DBS to further the science on Parkinson’s disease.

But Rick Buchanan claims that I wear my Parkinson’s on my sleeve.

Right, Rick. You are not Parkinson’s disease. You don’t HAVE Parkinson’s disease.  At least not the same way I do. According to studies published at the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health (where I used to work, remember, Rick?)

It is controversial if early onset Parkinson’s disease (EOPD) (onset at < 41 years of age) is Parkinson’s disease (PD) occurring at a younger age or a different disease. This controversy is due to some clinical and pathological differences between EOPD and PD.

If you were diagnosed at 20 (or whatever) and are still walking unassisted now (I recall you telling me how old you are, but I don’t remember the age), you do not have classical Parkinson’s disease.

But I give a shit whether you have it or not. Telling people you are “disgusted” by someone like me who has made it his mission to help fund the research in the attempt to find a cure for this, so far, incurable disease — after eight years of research being stalled by your fellow conservatives who feel that frozed blastocysts in a petrie dish that are going to be burned as medical trash ANYWAY have more rights than I do as a living human being — all I can say is, may you someday understand what you’re talking about.

Wearing Parkinson’s on my sleeve? Well, Rick. Better give that glory hound Michael J. Fox a call. Tell him to take his name off of that foundation. Who does he think he is, using his celebrity to raise money for research. HE is not Parkinson’s! His disease is nobody’s business, right? What business does HE have, starring in a new TV show this fall, playing a reporter with Parkinson’s. HE isn’t Parkinson’s disease!!! Right?

I wrote a book about my experiences with PD. I didn’t do it to get rich, obviously. Every nickel that book has raised has been donated to the National Parkinson Foundation and the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where I had my DBS done in 2007.

Yeah. I talk and write about my disease. And if one person out there has learned something he or she didn’t know about this progressive neurological disorder, GOOD! If one of the 50,000 people who will be diagnosed in 2013 here in the US learned he or she is NOT a freak, has NOT been handed a death sentence, and WILL live a more-or-less normal life for a bunch of years before PD starts taking a serious toll — GOOD!  If ONE PERSON with advanced stage disease learns a coping method, like ways I get unstuck when I suffer from freezing of gait, how not to feel stupid when you do silly things like throwing away the spoon and putting the empty ice cream pint in the sink, then GOOD! GOOD! GOOD!

See? That’s why I do it. That’s why I talk about it. I am not ashamed of having Parkinson’s disease. I am not Parkinson’s disease, but I damn sure have it. It affects everything I do, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, awake or asleep. There is no getting away from it. There are no days off. It will get worse and worse and steadily worse until I die. And you know what, Rick?

I’ve donated my remains to the Anatomy Gifts Registry!  That way, even after I die, someone somewhere can LEARN something about how Parkinson’s disease affects a body.

So, YOU hide in YOUR closet, Rick. I’m busy right now, fighting Hoge’s attempts to put me in jail on trumped up charges and I’m fighting my body at the same time.

Wanna trade lives? Good. Neither do I. I would hate to wake up in the morning and be you.