Craig B.
What happened was I'm diagnosed and one night I said, "Honey, I don't feel good." My wife leaned over and said, "Blame it on the Parkinson's." She said it as a joke, but then she took me to the hospital.
I coded on the table. It got very warm but I wasn't afraid. All of a sudden, I came back. My heart had stopped getting electrical impulses from my brain.
My family has lots of people with Parkinson's. There's me and two of my brothers, my cousin and her father. I was 42 years old, when I got diagnosed. It was devastating but we chose to take the high road. The first thing after the diagnosis I said, "We got to try to raise money for the fight against Parkinson's." There was a walk in New York City. We raised between $80,000 and $90,000 over the years that we did it.
My wife was looking at the internet like she does every night researching Parkinson's and found a place called Parkinson Place, in Sarasota, Florida. She told me, "I'm going down there!”
So we moved to Florida because of it. It's a very positive place. You see these people who can't move yet they still smile. They're still trying. For me it's always been a heaven sent place. The one thing that the Parkinson Place does that.. I don't know.. they make you live well with the disease.
Parkinson's can take the wind out of your sails pretty quickly. It's a journey, but it's not a journey you go by yourself. That's very important to know. It’s a journey you're going to share. Like when you walk on the bus and a kid gets up for you. You're 40 years old and they're getting up for you because you can't stand up straight. You know what I mean? That affects him, too. It affects your friends and your family. It affects everything that happens around you.
So we just make the best of it and laugh. We do laugh.
I coded on the table. It got very warm but I wasn't afraid. All of a sudden, I came back. My heart had stopped getting electrical impulses from my brain.
My family has lots of people with Parkinson's. There's me and two of my brothers, my cousin and her father. I was 42 years old, when I got diagnosed. It was devastating but we chose to take the high road. The first thing after the diagnosis I said, "We got to try to raise money for the fight against Parkinson's." There was a walk in New York City. We raised between $80,000 and $90,000 over the years that we did it.
My wife was looking at the internet like she does every night researching Parkinson's and found a place called Parkinson Place, in Sarasota, Florida. She told me, "I'm going down there!”
So we moved to Florida because of it. It's a very positive place. You see these people who can't move yet they still smile. They're still trying. For me it's always been a heaven sent place. The one thing that the Parkinson Place does that.. I don't know.. they make you live well with the disease.
Parkinson's can take the wind out of your sails pretty quickly. It's a journey, but it's not a journey you go by yourself. That's very important to know. It’s a journey you're going to share. Like when you walk on the bus and a kid gets up for you. You're 40 years old and they're getting up for you because you can't stand up straight. You know what I mean? That affects him, too. It affects your friends and your family. It affects everything that happens around you.
So we just make the best of it and laugh. We do laugh.