My friend Ray is over from America for a few days and wanted to do all the touristy things which is great because I've never done that before.
We pulled together a rough itinerary of things he wanted to see starting with Buckingham Palace. My Parkinson's was behaving semi-well when we started out. But then something switched.
It was like it knew it had the attention of 50 foreign students when it decided to make my legs feel like they were going to give way.
Like it knew that I might look dodgy and feel embarrassed about it when my arms were shaking uncontrollably.
Like it knew my friend was only in town for one more day and the arms and legs failing in collaboration would mean I'd have to go home early.
It didn't know that Ray would totally handle the whole situation so I didn't have to worry, talk to my cab driver and get me safely to it.
It didn't know that Samba my cab driver would take over from there, transporting me like precious cargo to my door.
It didn't know that it doesn't get to ruin my day that easily.
Parkinson's is tough. And it's frustrating. But I feel like I'm still winning. It might have thwarted my plans this one day (and maybe a few others) but I still have 266 more to show it who's boss.
So for now its 'Veep' on the TV for me while the American tours London on his own. And a day that ends with us giggling about Ray's attempts at a British accent while eating pie and mash is still a good day in my eyes. Because Parkinson's may try and take away a lot but i won't let it take away friendship, inner strength and mushy peas.
Comments