At 56 I was healthy, a teetotaller working a fairly stressful job and moonlighting as a solo musician. One evening I had just started a session and suddenly I felt everything around me going black, I soon squatted down so I would not fall and could not do anything much more, however when I recovered somewhat I took the guitar and put it on the stand and went and sat down and ordered a drink to steady myself, I thought if I got some sugar in my system it would help.I recovered and felt normal so I went back to playing and singing, completed my night gig, and came home and told no one about it.
A few months later I returned from an overseas business trip and my wife said "you are showing signs of slowing down, we need to see a Doctor", this was in December 2019. I said I was just tired with work and traveling and brushed it off. The New Year dawned and my wife kept pushing me to see a Doctor so I finally went to a Neurologist and he took one look at my face and said, "you have Parkinson's" I refused to accept it and kept denying it, deny deny deny. We went for a second opinion, this Neuro physician came 45m late spent 20 seconds examining me and started writing a prescription, I asked him what is wrong and his response was, "part of your brain is dead"!!! what a wonderful Doctor, I wanted to smack him in the head until his brain was dead.
I refused to take the drugs he prescribe so my wife was directed to this Ayurvedic Doctor. We tried that for about 6 months and while it solved some issues of having PD, it did not address everything,
So we decided to do things in order because in Sri Lanka people channel specialist Doctors most of the time without first consulting a General Physician, We consulted a well-known Physician and he confirmed the Diagnosis and directed us to what he termed as one of the best, if not the best Neuro physician in the country.
I have been going to him a for almost a year now and I feel much better. There was a time I would be at the sink and then I knew I had to move but I did not know which leg to move first. I had to stop driving because I would sit in the car and think I was accelerating but the car would be stationary, The most depressing part for me was when I could not play the guitar and sing, I have been doing it since I was 13 or 14 and I could now imagine life without music.
My advise to anyone who reads this, if you are slowing down, or if any of your family members or friends are showing any signs that are unusual, consult a Doctor, don't wait until it's too late.
#ParkinsonsDisease
