My P emerged in my mid-30s, which is really young. One of the things I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about is having an "old man" disease. I'm not going to lie to you. It's a little annoying when I see things like the picture that accompanies the article 4 Smartphone Apps to Help You Manage Parkinson's on the MJ Fox Foundation website:
These two look like this is their first time trying to "talk into the machine". Fox himself was even younger than me when his symptoms emerged, for pete's sake. Yet this is the image of P.
When I got definitively diagnosed, I wanted to get in touch with other people in my situation, so I went a few times to a group specifically for YOPs. I imagined there would be other people with my problems, like also having young kids and also still being early in their career while trying to deal with this. Everybody there was seriously minimum 60 and moaning about getting P "so young". Look, it stinks to get this disease at any age, and I'm sure these 60 year old guys are also like "P?!? This is bullshit! That's for 80 year olds!". But seeing the people that turn out for a YOP group, and listening to them talk made me a little irked and a whole lot of lonely. I'm not about excluding anyone, but where can I find the (really) YOP crowd? I know they're out there, and must be in my area. Probably also in the closet. Sigh.
When I got definitively diagnosed, I wanted to get in touch with other people in my situation, so I went a few times to a group specifically for YOPs. I imagined there would be other people with my problems, like also having young kids and also still being early in their career while trying to deal with this. Everybody there was seriously minimum 60 and moaning about getting P "so young". Look, it stinks to get this disease at any age, and I'm sure these 60 year old guys are also like "P?!? This is bullshit! That's for 80 year olds!". But seeing the people that turn out for a YOP group, and listening to them talk made me a little irked and a whole lot of lonely. I'm not about excluding anyone, but where can I find the (really) YOP crowd? I know they're out there, and must be in my area. Probably also in the closet. Sigh.
Maybe you would like to join the informal trial of PIPmix - a free 'tonic' for PD which can be seriously symptom improving for some users. email me on andrew@brainhelp.info if interested.
ReplyDelete