Along With Parkinson's Came New Writing, Photography and Music Passion and Abilities

Okay. Enough preaching. I promise to get back to basics with the blog and write about how Parkinson’s disease affected me, negatively and positively. I would say that the early four or five years were the most annoying, if only because it was all new to me and I had not yet had enough experience. (Neither did my doctors.) My early symptoms were mainly stiffness when walking, a lack of hand dexterity resulting in problems with typing, shaving, brushing my teeth and doing buttons. And my handwriting was very small. Typical PD symptoms and not terrible. Then there was that wasting away of muscle which to me was most depressing. One symptom that I have never had and still don’t is the rhythmic tremor. I occasionally have a shakiness when doing something delicate like holding a soup spoon. But one of my early doctors put me on propranolol and the shakiness was under control. It still is. This is probably not a Parkinson's disease symptom, oddly enough. (To prove my steadiness, recently at a New York City gun range, I shot at moving targets and did at least as well as a number of younger people who do not have PD. Just sayin…) I will show you how I beat every one of my symptoms later.

But read on about some strange, unexpected possible positive affects of PD.

Early in my PD history, I noticed changes in my interests and the quality in my work in these interests. First was writing fiction. Prior to this onset of PD, I had little interest in, and never tried to write, fiction, and suddenly I found myself writing a novel and numerous short stories. A couple of these were published. Let me  restate this. Along with PD came a sudden ability to write fiction at a quality level that was recognized by others who selected my work for publication. Was this a silver lining to the changes in my brain? Was it a response to the complex cocktail of drugs aimed at making my brain connect better? This is a question for people a lot smarter than me. I can only report that this was a sudden and dramatic change for me happening at exactly the same time as other changes due to PD.

In future installments, I will also discuss the amazing improvement in my photography and interest in music related to my Parkinson’s. Both became obsessions beyond what I could ever describe. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Another sample of my photography is above. Enjoy.

NYUrbanimages.com