Dear Joy
This is not a horrer story.I have never been able to learn to drive a car.
I could not make the car drive in a straight line or turn a corner
adequately. Soon after I had taken some lessons I gave up. I don't know
whether this had some connection with my Parkinson. I can't say exactly
when that started, but I had a light rest tremor in my left hand years
before I started my drive-lessons. I did not realy mind to have to
restrict myself to my bicycle for the short distances and to the train
for the long ones.
I did love cycling and so did Andre. For holidays we had a light weight
camping equipment and we liked to go by train to places where we could
camp free in nature and the children did like this at least as much.
We live in a newly build town and the traffic is thouroughly segregated
with separate routes for bikes.
That's why in Zoetermeer I could use my bicycle many years after I was
diagnosed. Soon I missed the skill to interfere with my bike in other
traffic, but here I did not need that skill. The reason I couldn't do
that any more was not due to slowness of cognitive reaction, but to the
slowness of acting upon it. After some years however I had to get down
my bike every time I had to turn a corner. When the moment came that
I had to give up cycling due to an increasing lack of balance that
was a real loss.
Reading the stories on the list makes one realize that to participate
in the traffic here (in Europe) asks more driving skill and unimpaired
reaction time, than at the other side of the ocean. Here it would be
suicidal to drive with a deficit in reaction time great enough to
be perceived easily.
Now I appreciate it very much to have a car with somebody to drive.
Dyskinesia is less unpleasant,having the possibility to retreat in
a private domain.
Ida Kamphuis,
Holland
You wrote
>>(who is an OT who works in a driving assessment consultancy) for her
>>own education as much as anything. Tell me your horror stories too if
>>you like!
>>Thanks in anticipation.
>>Sincerely
>>Joy Graham
