Having read the Modern Maturity article, I felt the article seemed to
ooze depression and denial.  Heck... the PWP can't even bring himself
to refer by it's commonly accepted name, but has come up with a
coupla dumb nicknames as though THIS somehow downgrades what he has.

No matter WHAT he prefers to call it - a "Parkinson's condition" or
"Bert," he's STILL *GOT* this steeeeeeenkin' Parkinson's DISEASE.

It's time for a "reality check," both for the patient  AND for the
magazine!  PD is PD.. it ain't a "Bert!"

Barb Mallut
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-----Original Message-----
From: Jennifer Smith <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Friday, March 05, 1999 6:27 AM
Subject: Re: Modern Maturity PD article


>Dear Phil,
>I felt the same way about the article.   My husband read it too and
all
>he could say was that it was really sad.  He enjoyed the article
about
>Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner a lot more.  I think the one about PD did
not
>do PWP as much good as it could have if it was written in a less
abstract
>sense.  I think articles like this tend to cloud the issue in the
minds
>of people who are not personally involved in this disease.  I also
think
>that calling it a "condition" is minimizing its devastating effects.
Not
>everyone can deal with this disease as flippantly as this man does.
>Jennifer
>
>Phil Tompkins wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> Did anyone read the article on PD in the March-April 1999 issue of
>> Modern Maturity?  The author, D. Keith Mano, is a writer who is
also
>> a PWP.  It's good to be getting still more attention, but I'm not
>> quite sure what to make of this particular piece.
>>
>> Mano calls his PD "Parkinson's condition".  He personifies it,
>> describing it as an "oafish" cousin who visits, doesn't leave, and
>> then becomes a big problem.  Mano refuses to get angry; instead he
>> decides to give "him" a name -- "Bert", and develops a "reluctant
>> fondness" for "him".
>>
>> Believing that Sinemet has a "honeymoon period" of only 3 to 5
years,
>> Mano delayed taking it for about 5 years.  During that period he
>> developed considerable stiffness and bradykinesia.  His attitude
>> toward these changes was to initially regard them as a challenge
and
>> a curiousity.  He only became spooked later when he started
getting
>> emotional (he found this emergence of the "feminine" to be
>> "disconcerting") and after a great deal of stiffness had set in,
>> resulting in loss of the use of the fingers of his right hand and
>> other "very, very bad" symptoms.
>>
>> Sinemet, of course, worked its wonders, nearly eliminating his
>> symptoms.  But, he writes, "perversely enough, something in me
still
>> needs the challenge of my condition..."
>>
>> I'm not sure whether this article does us a service or not.  I
find
>> the phrase "Parkinson's condition" to be inappropriate. It's not
just
>> that everyone in the field of medicine calls it by its proper
name,
>> "Parkinson's disease".  To me "Parkinson's condition" tends to
>> minimize the illness.  Beyond all the considerable discomfort and
>> disability we endure, we are 3 to 4 times more likely to die of
>> pneumonia* and 6 to 7 times more likely to become demented**
>> compared to the general population.
>>
>> Mano's way of personifying his disease strikes me as like an
attempt
>> to regard a grizzly bear as a Teddy bear.  Perhaps Mano is still
>> struggling with denial.
>>
>> Phil Tompkins
>> Hoboken NJ
>> age 61/dx 1990
>>
>> * Gorell JM, Johnson CC, Rybicki. "Parkinson's disease and its
>> comorbid disorders: an analysis of Michigan mortality data, 1970
to
>> 1990." Neurology, 1994,Oct;44(10):1865-8.
>>
>> ** Lang AE, Lozano AM.  "Parkinson's disease."  NEJM,
>> 1998,Oct;339(15):1044-53.
>