PLWP - Willie Ford

12:40AM - Introducing Willie Ford...

Good luck with your journaling Willie and thank you so much for sharing with all of us.

Together we make a difference,
The PLWP Journaling Team

The following is a short bio about Willie.

I am 59 yeards old with the body of a man 90. This desease has robbed me of my most productive years! It not only has affected me but my family as well.

What the heck is Parkinson’s? How do you get it? what do you do for it?

These are all questions that people ask. To start with PD is a decease of the brain. It has an “Electrical Short”. The part of the brain that produces LaDoppamine, which is the transportor for the electrical messages sent out by the brain, does not produce enough.

since no one knows what causes PD they so not have a cure. They treat the symptom not the Pd.

Pd is a mean decease. It does not care if you are rich, poor man or woman. It will take you when you are in your prime.

No I said all that to tell the story of my PD.and how it has effected my life.

It all started with weakness in my arm. I couldn’t drive a nail or do any labor because my are would tire out so fast. When I went top the Doctor, He sent me to a Head doctor because he said it was all in my head. It was due to the stress I was under. In the meantime they ram every test they could on my.

After a couple of visits to the head doctor I quickly was able to see that it was a waste of time. So. For the next year I just suffered through. Then My wife who was employed at the little hospital in Seiling Oklahoma. was talking to a doctor there. She related my probed and all I had been through. He quickly said that it sounded Like PD.

He saw me the next day and then refereed me to a specialist in OKLA city. I was examined by him and found that I did indeed have Parkinson’s.

A short time later I found out about a drug research program at KU <Med center and contacted them and I have been in a program or just a patient there every since. How has Parkinson’s effected or changed my Life? I tell the story about a tall Oak tree that has been there for years, It is strong and looks healthy, then it blows over and you can see where decease had ate the insides out of it with no apparent sings on the outside. PD does that to a person. Without warning, you are taken down. I was at the top of my profession, It is impossible to say just how far I could have went. I was in demand, wanted by dealers all over the country. then it happened. Suddenly I am an old man with a decease, Shaking and stumbling. Having a hard time talking loud enough and coming off like a retarded person because of the lack of expressions. I had to learn to eat and do everything with my left hand. It you want to know what it is like, go through one day using only your left hand. I became used to people staring at “The Old Cripple” I learned the Parkinson shuffle and how to fall gracefully. The meds for PD are interesting to say the least! the all warn that dressiness may occure,yet I can not sleep over 4-5 hours at a time. Sinemet will cause tremors Pd is a very common thing, I think that 1 in 10 people are affected. It is a Living hell sometimes.