living with Parkinson’s

To tell or not to tell? That is the question

Jeremy Munday2 Comments

Should I tell people I have Parkinson’s? What are the benefits of doing so and what might hold me back from saying it?

Well, since I’m writing about it in a blog I can say that I have told people and I do think there are benefits from being open about the condition. When I was first diagnosed I told my immediate family and my employer then my friends when I saw them or spoke to them. To my children, who were quite young at the time and had seen how I had problems with my hand, we said that I had a condition that would not get better and that it affected and will affect my mobility. It was a few months later we told them it was Parkinson’s.

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Tai chi for Parkinson’s disease

Jeremy MundayLeave a comment

People sometimes ask what it feels like to have Parkinson’s disease. It’s really difficult to describe. Parkinson’s is ever-present but does not cause me acute physical distress – not at the moment anyway. The only physical pain I sometimes get is in the back of the neck, especially when I’m walking or when I’ve been sitting for some time. The body strains to keep everything going, but that strain to communicate from brain to limb seems to get clogged in the neck and the dull pain prevents me from relaxing. Something similar happens with my exercise bike: nice comfy seat, large pedals, supporting bars and handlebars… but the optimum cycling position becomes a pain in the neck after a couple of minutes and forces me to punctuate the cycling with moments of supporting my neck.

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