A lot of people who have Parkinson’s have written about either themselves or another person who they know with PD and how the individual has overcome the adversity by doing this or that for the cause of finding a cure for this disease. Now please don’t get me wrong here, these people who are definitely an inspiration to most of us for what they have done and continue to do on a daily basis. A certain  wobbly person springs to mind as one of these people, who have an inner passion to fight the cause for the ultimate goal of a cure. Continue reading →

I can’t believe that we are into February, 2011 brought me a great deal of change – an understatement to say the least.

Continue reading →

Well I say Christmas shopping, it was more caught up in the madness of Christmas shopping. Because we are moving to Northamptonshire and buying a ‘new build’ my wife is under the impression that my pension is a disposable income for everything new ! New fridge freezer, new washing machine, black in colour to match the kitchen units – apparently black is the new silver which makes white ‘so last decade’ ! To a typical bloke so long as it washes your clothes and keeps things cold I don’t really care. Anyway to go with the new beds and appliances, all of which have been ordered and delivered you also must have new light pendants I was told. But of course was my reaction so last night and for about three hours Sue had her head buried in the laptop ordering these lights from Argos.

To my horror Sue informed me that she had managed to reserve from the Argos in ……………. Lakeside. When she kindly informed me my first reaction was “I’ve got to endure Lakeside at this time of year for some bloody lights” ! Sue reassuring me responded “It wont be busy if we go early and it’s only just through the tunnel” My reaction to that was “It’s Essex though”………

Anyway as is the norm Sue prevailed and off we set just after nine o’clock this morning – Monday 28th November with me trying to convince myself by thinking “Well it can’t be that busy, it’s only November” – famous last words and a forlorn hope, as I was to find out.

Now I am not a snob…………..well to be honest yes I am ! I think nearly twenty years of dealing predominantly with the lower echelons of life have made me that way. Having on numerous occasions entering someones house and thinking that someone has died there because the stench was so bad, only to find the occupiers had some trivial matter to report, generally only wanting a crime reference number for the council and then having finished with them and wiping my feet after I had left the house to rid myself of whatever had been deposited on their carpet over the years of non-vacuum cleaning have left an indelible mark on me.

Whenever I have to go to places like Lakeside or Bluewater I spend my time people watching, looking on aghast at people who clearly have never paid national insurance or what the rest of call income tax and probably never will. I have a kind of strange fixation watching young single mothers feeding McDonald’s to their one year old son or daughter. Or the classic which I saw the other day, a young child of about four running amok in a shop, shouting and screaming, almost climbing the walls of the shop and his father shouting at him “Levi why the f%$k you being like this, I’ve bought you some sweets”. Obviously my thoughts were “It’s because you gave him the sweets man, use your brain”

To add to the strange pleasure of watching these people is listening to what the vocabulary is. Words they use never cease to amuse me. Terminology such as “Alright boy” “Alright bro” “Know what I mean” – that is added onto the end of each sentence, “init”, “end of” and usually spoken in a strange dialect that is a cross between cockney and Jamaican.

So you can kind of see why I don’t like these places !

Anyway to get back to my shopping experience, we arrive at Lakeside at opening time having had no problems in getting through Dartf Tunnel and thinking this wont be too bad then, finding a paking space without a hitch and with enough room for me to struggle out of the passenger seat without other people staring. Then it started, with so many spaces to choose but yes you’ve guessed it a car parks one space away from us and out gets a lad wearing his best grey jogging bottoms and yellow trainers and would you believe ………….no not a coat in November but yes …a VEST ! To compound my bewilderment  he was holding a Big Mac in one hand and in the other a large McDonalds bag containing even more food for him to scoff at nine thirty in the morning ! With a mouth full of food he then turns to a young female who had just got a eight or nine month old out from the back of their ‘G’ Reg Fiesta, with no sign of any child seat in it……and said to her “‘urry up girl, I dont wanna be ‘ere that long, know what I mean” ! The young ‘lady’ concerned – I don’t think we will call her his wife ……. responds with “I wanna f%$king look in Primark though Micky”

Trying not to a) enlightening him on the rather important subject of putting his young daughter in an appropriate fitting car seat and b) trying not to stare at him and c) trying not to laugh we watched these upstanding members of Essex society walk away towards Primark this time with the ‘gentleman’ holding a milkshake, but still arguing amongst themselves.

Not being able to put it off any longer we made our way into the shopping centre, my wife thinking that I was dragging my heels but actually it was not one of my better walking days – quite conveinient I was thinking until I got into the shopping centre itself. Once inside how I wished that I was the Chris of old, so I could do the ‘lets just get round quickly and go’ thing.

What I found was people walking infront of you and then stopping so they were directly infront of you without any ackowledgement that they may have caused you some inconveinience as I try to stop walking into the back of them. Wouldn’t it be nice if these people who are so wrapped up in their own world only knew the effort that you had had to make in not staggering into the back of them. But what do they care, they are doing what they want and to hell with the rest of us.

We then make it out of the first shop…….and into the main thoroughfare and into what seems a million people, all walking across your path or so close behing you that you can hear them tutting as you hold them up. As I constantly say to Sue these type of people must be so busy in life that they have to do everything at a hundred miles an hour….life really is too short.

After about ten minutes of slowly navigating my way through hoards of people we arrive at Argos where I find the sanctuary of a chair to sit down on !! whilst Sue puts the order through. We then sit and wait watching every other number other than 171 – ours getting the ‘ready to collect’ status. I asked Sue why our order wasn’t progressing and I was told “Well it’s because it is a big order” “How big” I said, “Thirteen items” was the reply followed by “I don’t know how we are going to get them back to the car” Bloody great I thought, we’re going to have to stop and make ‘base camp’ somewhere on the way back !!

My fingers are really hurting now so I’ll wrap this up quickly !! Anyway fighting our way through the crowds holding four carrier bags each and wishing I had a flag to hold up with the words OUT OF MY WAY I’VE GOT PARKINSONS on it we eventually reached our car. Nothing parked near to it, great I can ease myself into it without making a fool of myself I thought but to my utter bewilderment and to top the whole experiance off, next to our car and exactly where the red Fiesta had been was…………………..an empty McDonalds bag and a yellow stained used nappy on the ground and to top it all – the Fiesta had clearly driven over the nappy splitting it in half and depositing the inside of it across the car park !!!!

Now what do you think, am I a snob and are you !!!!!

See you next time

Hi everyone, so here it goes my first ever ‘blog’ – hope you enjoy it ! Actually if I am being honest this blog is about the fourth draft after sitting next to the laptop and thinking what the hell am I going to write about ? So after starting writing then stopping and deleting about three times I thought I might as well start from where I am now and then start to bore you after that with old police ‘war stories’ and not alienate my audience from the start !

So where am I ? Well retired at the age of 43 just waiting to exchange and complete on our house move, where we are relocating to rural Northamptonshire, after six months of showing people around our house, giving them the guided tour and feeling like one of those has-been celebrities who now show messers around other peoples houses, who then in the end don’t buy anything because …..”It was too big a compromise” !! I’ve had the lot over the last few months, people who don’t speak English, people who don’t actually say anything, others who are very nice and interested and others who are quite happy to tell you that they don’t like your house and will definitely not be putting in an offer – just after walking beyond the hallway !!

However time and time again the conversation went like this Q. “Why are you selling” A. “I have just retired from the police and we are moving to Northants”  Q. “I’ve heard your pensions are brilliant, your so lucky” and on every one of those occasions thinking “If only I could be arsed to tell you and then watch you splutter and apologise” but I was always too nice !

This week was slightly different though during a trip to my local Accident and Emergency department. The reason for my trip was that I could hardly bend my left leg and felt like I had ripped my calf muscle after I had a day out in London with a few old mates from The Met. A liquid lunch in Borough Market and then a sit down meal alongside the Thames and then over-doing the walk/shuffle back to London Bridge station.Then boarding the homeward bound train and to my horror finding it was standing room only, all the way back to Dartford !! Now I can hear you all shouting “Non disabled sitting in seats they are required to relinquish for the disabled…………….etc” But quite liking my only slightly faded boyish good looks I made the rational decision not to ask the 6’2″ stocky builder with tattoos on his neck to move !

Instead I decided to stick to my usual travel game and see how many people come my stop will end up watching my arms and fingers shake and watching them think to themselves “Is he drunk or is he not quite right”. Better this time than is usual as I had at least two couples nudging each other and miming “look” and casually nodding in the direction of my hands !! These four added to the other four people that couldn’t help themselves by staring at my hands made me more than a little amused. When on the Traffic Cars I  always hated ‘rubber-neckers’ but these people took it another level !!

Now at this point in writing my blog I have realised that I have digressed away from my original story more than Ronnie Corbett used to when he was telling one of his favourite stories !! So getting back to the A&E Dept………………

My left calf had seized up so much and with the other leg suffering the effects of what we Parkies call “stiffness and rigidity” that I walked into the A&E looking like a Douglas Bader impersonator !!! After only a short time waiting to see a Doctor I had my name called out by a short demure man who looked quite friendly ……….from this point things didn’t quite go to script !

After explaining why I was there asking for help and telling him that I felt a large lump at the top of my calf and hoped it wasn’t a clot the seeming nice Doctor then told me that I quite clearly needed to lose a lot of weight and that he didn’t think that my Parkinson’s Disease was that bad !!!

I immediately had two trains of thought – much like I did when on the odd occasion I had a ‘Front Counter Duty’ in the police and had a loud and obnoxious person who I had to deal with and then needing arresting for disorderly contact……………first thought – will he be coming across the front counter and in the same motion dragged through to custody or ………..second thought – walked into custody via a side door ??? The first was always the most fun !!

I can’t believe it, I digressed again……..anyway

The second option prevailed and It took all my willpower not to throw him out of the widow and say “your right, it’s not is it”!! However, taking the moral high ground I replied “Well I’m here because of leg oedemas up both legs, I have had to give up driving because of Parkinson’s, I take nearly twenty tablets a day and if I don’t I skake like a shitting dog” (at his point my wife butting in with gritted teeth and uttering the word “CHRIS !”….I continued on , “I can hardly lift my legs up to put socks on and can’t lift my arms up to go swimming”. Still staring hard at him – noting to do with PD, just me being livid and still trying not to put him out of the window, I carried on ……”oh and to top it off Doctor I have had to retire from a job and vocation that I loved that included the driving funnily enough ten years short of what I had planned, so I guess you’re right my Parkinson’s isn’t that bad”

After a prolonged silence and me still staring hard he said “oh”. Funnily after my ‘explanation’ he arranged for me to have a scan, blood test and check up, well above the expected forefinger and thumb pressed into the back of my leg.

The upshot was no DVT but a still very sore left calf but being a bloke I haven’t moaned about the pain once and have been a really brave soldier !!

Before writing my first blog I had visions of writing something profound and memorable but realising that I am not articulate enough I thought the next best option was just to witter on so I think I have achieved my objective !!!

In all my years as a serving police officer my outlook in dealing with the general public was ‘promise little but deliver a lot’ and although I can only promise little in the way of profound wisdom I can deliver a lot of ‘wittering-on’ and plenty of references to my old job and in not the to distant future some funny and not so funny ‘war stories’ to bore you all with !!!

Parkinson Disease is a funny old thing to have and would be fascinating if you didn’t have it – the daily challenges that all people affected by PD face, from just getting out of bed under your own steam through to trying to cook an evening meal, shattered by the bodies fight throughout the day against the effects of the illness and ending with trying not to fall asleep in the dinner that you have eventually been able to make after lots of huffing and puffing !!

My point is that having read one particular book by a person who has PD I can tell you all that from my own perspective I can say that it is not a ‘gift from God’ nor is it ‘a privilege’ and I don’t feel that ‘PD has been sent to test me ‘ ……………….I just think its a real bugger because I can’t do this or that but there is always someone worse off than you. Oh and how lucky am I to be on a police pension and retired at 43 – whoopee-do, I thank my lucky stars each day !!!

See you all next time

Chris

Hello everyone, my name is Chris Fuller and I am 43 years old and born and raised in Kent. I have been married for the last 20 years to Suzanne who is 41. We have a wonderful son who is nearly 20 and to complete our family there is our two beautiful female Border Collies Abbey & Jess.

In April of this year I retired from the Police Service, having served for the best part of twenty years with both the Metropolitan Police and Kent County Constabulary. This was an ill-health retirement due to me suffering from Parkinson’s disease, having been diagnosed back in 2006 with medical opinion that it could be traced back as far as 2000.

I appreciate that not everyone can retire at such an early age as 43 is, however doing the job that I did and for as long as I did, it was decreed that because all my daily reserves of energy were being put into getting to and staying at work that it was having such an adverse effect on my health that the best option was ill-health retirement and pension. So the tap on the shoulder and “Can we our warrant card back please” conversation has done me proud and I can state that I feel so much better since April, so I can recommend early retirement for anyone unfortunate to suffer from this awful illness.

I will shortly be relocating to rural Northamptonshire, so I am sure any future blogs will contain new experiences on rural life and country living. I will endeavour to keep my blogs light  hearted and good humoured, as my outlook on Parkinson’s Disease is not one of all-consuming despair but one of  ”so I’ve got this illness, hey-ho get on with it” We must all remember that no matter what stage we are at with our own fight against PD there are always people worse off who will die as a result of there illness. I am not a person who does group meetings and seminars etc but I am a great fan of such committed people like Bryn and Steve Ford who have a passion and dedication to bring those who can make a difference in finding a cure together for the greater good and I more than happy to assist them in any capacity that I can.

Likewise I can’t do marathons and alike to raise money but I can stay at home and look after the house and dogs which allows my wife and her mum to raise money for Parkinson’s UK. They have done events such as The Namibian Ultra Marathon, Grimsthorpe Ultra, Great Barrow Challenge (4 marathons in 4 days) and other 78 miles in 24 hours ultra’s. Between them have raised nearly £20,000 for Parkinsons and MS charities.

I will always retain a sense of humour towards Parkinson’s Disease as it is a coping mechanism that I have always used to good effect, so if I do include any black humour in my blogs please bare in mind that although retired I still cannot get rid of the strange sense of humour (touched with more than a hint of inappropriate sarcasm) that police officers have !

I hope you enjoy my future thoughts and observations.

Best Wishes

Chris