Struggling With Parkinson's

WEEKEND VIEW: WHEEL POWER 

(Start of Article)

SAMUEL NG was the epitome of health at one time until his whole world suddenly came crashing down.

It happened nearly five years ago. Samuel was living in his hometown in Ipoh in the state of Perak where he still resides today.  

 

Then 42-years of age, Samuel was working for a top pharmaceutical company.

His associates and friends regarded him as not only one of the most active persons around but Samuel was known for his good and healthy way of living.  

For Samuel, it was always a must to have a balanced diet. He would exercise regularly and never touched a cigarette.

He also regarded alcohol as a major enemy. No one could ever bring him near a bottle.

After all, as the breadwinner of the family – his lovely wife Chris and his loving teenaged children Gibson, 20 and Rachel, 17, the medical executive, husband and father always thought of his family as the greatest gifts and treasures in his life.

These alone were motivation and reason enough to stay healthy in life.   

Then one evening after dinner, everything changed.

“I suddenly started to feel a sharp pain in my stomach,” Samuel told Wheel Power last week.

“I wasted no time in having myself checked by a doctor the next morning,” Samuel added.  

An ultrasound discovered stones in Samuel’s gallbladder. They were quickly removed through key-hole surgery.

Samuel thought that that was the end of his health problems but he was mistaken.

A week after the operation, Samuel noticed a certain stiffness that had crept up over his left hand. It kept coming and going off.

That landed him inside the consultation room of another doctor – this time a neurologist.

After a simple test of walking a few metres, sitting and standing and raising his hand up and down, he received a rude shock from the specialist.  

“I was told point blank that I had Parkinson’s disease (PD),” said Samuel.

(Parkinson’s is a progressive disease of the nervous system that weakens the muscles and makes the limbs to shake)

“My immediate reaction was one of denial,” Samuel went on.

“I scoffed at the doctor saying he must have been seeing too many PD patients. A bright career was just starting for me at age 42 and this was no time for me to be dealing with this.”

But the doctor paid no attention to Samuel’s complaints.

Instead, Samuel was given medications to treat his condition. 

But Samuel just threw it away because of some side effects and went back to work. The stiffness on his hand got worse and it got more difficult to sleep at night. 

In desperation Samuel went for further consultations with other doctors but they all arrived at the same conclusion.

“I tried every single thing I could to make my job work for me because I didn’t want to let down my family but things just got worse.

“The breaking point came when I couldn’t wear my shirt by myself and started walking like a robot. I had to depend on others to do things for me which I could do by myself previously.”

After 16 years in the company, Samuel finally told his boss about his illness. They had no choice but to let him go.

“It was being at home and doing nothing that made me start worrying about the future and going into depression.

“Even at that point, I still refused to accept that I had PD. I felt useless, hopeless and afraid. There were even moments when I couldn’t control my anger and ended up breaking some things just to release my frustration.

“The situation was also especially difficult for my family to take, seeing me in such a way.”

But change came about for Samuel when he finally met a neurologist in hospital in Kuala Lumpur. The specialist “tailor-made” a special combination of drugs to tackle each and every of the symptoms that was troubling Samuel.

Because of this careful listening to Samuel’s problems, the right kind of medications helped improve his condition little by little.  

Although there is still no cure for PD, Samuel has learnt other ways to live on top of his condition. 

“That includes in going out and meeting other People with Parkinson’s and their caregivers so that one can learn from the experiences and challenges of others facing the same disease,” Samuel, now 47, explained.

“The first step is to accept your condition. Next, dream big dreams, especially of those where despite our conditions, we can still play a part in helping other people like ourselves.

“There is no limit to what we can do: help set up support groups for PD persons, get the government to make positive changes to help us, educate the public about what PD is about, etc.

“As they say, the sky is really the limit,” concluded Samuel.

Samuel spent Father’s Day with his family on Sunday enjoying special dishes made by Gibson who is doing a degree in hotel management.    

THE END

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