About

My name is John and I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in August of 2023. When I was first diagnosed, I went on a marathon of reading about Parkinson’s. It consumed every waking and sleeping bit of my life. I barely remember half the things I read back then, but I do remember one thing very clearly. All of it terrified me. All of it.

I read and heard so many things like: change your diet, exercise, It won’t kill you “T but a complication from it will be highly likely to kill you.” blah blah blah. Change everything now.

There was no way I was ready to think about those things. All I could think about was that I was going to die any day. At some point in time, my wife would have to wipe me. And to top it off, I was going to be bed bound.

None of this happened immediately. It just doesn’t work like that, as far as I know. Since August, there has been a bit of progression. However, nothing that greatly impact my daily like. Although, the waking up every hour and the nightmares make it difficult to wake up in the morning.

While I love the information I got from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Davis Finney Foundation, The Parkinson Foundation, Bryan Grant Foundation (all pages I still read and admire. BTW, Michael, if you are reading this, you are fucking awesome and I have a bit of Parkinson’s man crush ) it’s not that I found any of it lacking. Quite the opposite. There is so much information and advice that it is overwhelming. This happens while you are trying to process the diagnosis and what it means for your future.

Can I have the dumbed down version, please? Can it have a little humor and have it not be all so damned serious. I know it is not puppies and unicorns farting rainbows. But, I do know that we still have to live our lives until we cannot.

The goal of this blog is to write about my experiences with Parkinsons. It is a way for me to welcome this thing into my family. It is part of me. I cannot separate myself from it, so I will treat it as a friend. I tease it just as I do any friend. I will love it as if it were family. I will embrace it. I want to do this with a sense of humor and provide some helpful links and guides to the newly diagnosed.

I hope you enjoy. Please take a few moments to leave a comment. Liking it is not a prerequisite to reading the blog posts and page. Just be nice. I am human as well.

John AKA The Minordiety