Here's a photo of my dad from 1936-37. It's before he was married and he had just started farming on his own. He's a rather cheerful handsome looking dude.
Here's Dad in 2002 at his 90th birthday. His Parkinson's was quite advanced by that time but he still appreciated his birthday and said that he never thought he would grow to be 90 years old.
Here's the last picture I have with Dad. He was 92-93 and Parkinson's was well advanced.
I can't help but notice the long slow deterioration in health.
He raised 4 sons . We were a challenge. At the 90th birthday party some of the biggest issues were mentioned with humor. A certain motorcycle purchase was a sore spot.
However, the great sadness for him being a Dad was to not be able to raise his only daughter. She died at age 11 and he never was able to come to terms with her loss.
Most of us know someone who's had Parkinson's or is living with Parkinson's now. My Dad had Parkinson's. After a long slow helpless slide, Dad died in 2008. Nothing was done to treat Dad's Parkinson's. He was just looked after.
So when I heard an interview about a book on Parkinson's I decided to find it. The interview was with the author , Jon Palfreman, and he caught my attention.
The book is called Brain Storms : My fight against Parkinson's and the race to unlock the secrets of one of the brain's most mysterious diseases.
Brian Palfreman worked in journalism and once diagnosed with Parkinson's became preoccupied with discovering all he could about the disease and if he could be treated.
Parkinson's was discovered in 1817. Going back before 1817 many people of historical significance can be identified as having had Parkinson's.
So Palfreman goes through the history of the many things that have been done to discover what causes Parkinson's and the many things that have been done in an effort to treat Parkinson's. Many discoveries have been made that seemed promising and then turned out to be of little value. Each discovery and trial has lead further but not to a conclusion.
The main area of research now is genetic. The hope is to find a cause and then to be able to treat Parkinson's.
So on down the line we have drugs, surgery, grafting, exercise and gene therapy.
"Parkies", as they like to call themselves, are optimistic and hopeful that treatment and prevention will be developed. I hope they're right as many of us will develop Parkinson's.
I found this book to be a fascinating read.
