Saved! Another despatch from the Department of Dopamine Deficiency # 4
The things Parkinson's will do, given the chance
“Saved”
That’s the one-word title this picture is filed under on my computer, and it’s for good reason. It shows a distraught, bewildered old man, less than a mile from his home, subject to one of the several unpleasant things Parkinson’s disease can and will visit on a bod, when that individual has entertained the fucking thing in their nervous system for long enough.
It’s called a “PD freeze” and it occurs when a number of internal and external factors line up with the onset of extreme sudden fatigue and quite abruptly rob you of all motion and several of your marbles, just like that. You get about 20 seconds’ notice and then everything stops. You have 20 seconds to find somewhere to sit down or something to prop against awkwardly, otherwise the chances are you go over smack on your nose and you can’t even put your hands out to break your fall.
I saw a chap cop a big freeze in the street earlier today and my stomach came up to my mouth in one leap. I knew what he was feeling, and his wife too. I hurried across the road and said “I think I know what’s going on here — can I be of any help at all?”, thinking perhaps I could lend a shoulder to support the guy on the other side from his wife, who was not large. But I knew it was a mistake the moment she looked at me, tears brimming against a locked-in expression of savage resentment. Her whimpering husband merely looked humiliated. I knew I shouldn’t be there.
“No, thank you,” she said, “I think we’re managing fine. Aren’t we?” This last to her husband. He did not nod.
I melted away. And remembered this picture as I fled. The guy in the picture has gone into freeze and started to panic, and just as he began to feel the flight of his marbles — of all the luck! — his beloved daughter hoved round the corner and ran to his rescue — just as she always has. He loves her beyond measure.
But you can see that.