Quote:
Originally Posted by steeljack
seem to remember there used to be a Govt. sponsored organization (Remploy ?) which used to re-train the handicapped/disabled to get back into full time employment ...is it still in operation, disability was no excuse for lying in bed in those days .
Also think the blind chap with metal "claws" for hands (theres a thread about him, 3 or 4 yrs old) who worked in either the old Accington council or County offices as a receptionist/telephonist would be tad upset at seeing how easy it is to get onto disability list these days .
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I can only write about Parkinson's, because I'm involved with the Parkinson's Disease Society, and I happen to have it.
I only had to attend one interview. The man was very nice. In fact he was quite emotional, and said he was very sorry that I had it.
My only hope is that one day soon they will find a cure.
Work was my life. I loved it, and even went in, or did work for others, when I had time off.
I'm not going to post a sob story, saying woe is me, but in the last nine days I've not left the house. My mum tried to get me to walk, in the Easter sunshine on Saturday, but I only managed to get the two yards to my garden gate, and had to go back, my brain being unable to tell my feet to move.
When I was diagnosed six years ago, aged thirty nine, and was told by the neuroligist that I'd never work again, I was heartbroken. I felt my skills would be wasted. At that time it only affected my dominant right side. Slowly I managed to learn to do things with my left hand. Over the last year it's become apparent that it' now affecting the other side of my body too. Because it now affects my now stronger, non-dominant, left hand, and typing with my one finger has become noticably more difficult, I didn't use the computer at all for a few weeks before Christmas, so I wouldn't notice this change. Out of sight, out of mind etc.
Besides the tremor, and restricted movement, there are other less well known side effects of Parkinson's. Visual and aural hallucinations, periods where you don't sleep at all for 72 hours, which lessens the effects of the drugs, and periods between drugs wearing off when the pain is so acute that tears are the only release.
There's a high probability that withinn five years I'll be in a wheelchair, unable to speak, and reliant on someone else for my total care. Sadly I've got to know other people, diagnosed with young onset Pd, who are at this stage. Even now, without my family's help, I couldn't enjoy living independently. I don't know how long this will continue.
Parkinson's isn't unique, there are sadly lots of degenerative diseases and conditions, which make work practically nigh on impossible.
If I'm reinterviewed, so be it.
I look forward to hearing what career options are open to me.
Sadly basket making would be an impossibility, and even shaking a tambourine to a recognised beat, wouldn't be an assured thing.
