Wait… What?
Surprise! Remember me? I know. It’s been a really long time. You know when people say they have good reasons to be absent? Oh my, I have the best. No really I do. I haven’t just been a bit busy, I’ve been wrangling with some serious stuff. I have it all. Drama, excitement, sadness, extreme sports, edge-of-the-seat tension, families, death, life, and of course love. Love is a constant thing with a lot of this. Love for friends, families and love of life. I’ll be honest. I can’t quite get enough of that last one.
Some of you may be aware that I don’t like to be known as ‘the Parkinson’s person.’ Who wants to be defined by a disease? Not me, that’s for sure. I talk about not allowing the condition that affects me completely overtake me as a person. That’s really important to me, and I think it’s a healthy approach. Having said all that, I still see the need for people to be educated about this awful thing. And for those of us suffering? We need honesty from each other, yet positive role models and reinforcement of the message that this is not the end of our lives, but simply an irritation that we can’t (I’m wanting to say shake off but the word is not productive in this scenario…) get rid of.
So what happened? Why the hiatus for so long? If I cut a very long story short I must tell you that the person I have been dating (and there’s a blog post begging to be written there about the realities that life isn’t over even with a crappy disease) was racing his motorbike at a track and suffered a cardiac arrest whist mid-way through a session. Medics were summoned, people rallied and by the time I could approach the area (it was in the middle of a race-track) CPR was being applied to what was then his lifeless body. I watched as people tried and tried to revive him in some way. This went on for thirty minutes my friends. The prognosis was not great. One defibrillator told us that there was nothing there to revive. The second one retrieved from an ambulance thankfully pulled him back from the brink of whatever and wherever it is we go when we’re finally done with this life.
The next few days are a bit of a blur of waiting rooms, tears, meeting family members that had no idea I even existed (way to go private Mr M) and more tears. Did I mention tears? Miraculously he woke up and despite some initial memory issues appears to be as normal as Mr M ever can be. Well, you didn’t think I’d date anyone completely dull and boring, would you?
There has been much soul-searching and talking about embracing life. Let’s be honest, I thought I was pretty good at that already, but hey, here was another wake up call. Like I needed another one? Way to go, life.
And that brings me back to this. Writing. Writing is what I love, and while I have tried to pull myself away I keep coming back to writing and Parkinson’s. So many people have told me that they loved this site, what it is trying to do and the fact that it’s all about being different, positive and true. So I’m back doing what I do best. Talking about the thing I despise most in the world, this creeping condition that tries to pull me down. It almost has recently. The last few months have been, without any hint of exaggeration, truly horrific. However, as time passes again I have come to realise that my fight must continue. I can never give up, else I may be overcome. That must not happen, as I have so much life left to live, so far to go, and so much love to offer all.
Until next time, Kitty.
Kitty Fitton is a motivational speaker, MC and comedian. She is also a full-time blogger and writer. She is mother to four small people and was very cross to discover she had Parkinson’s Disease.
Find out more at her personal site below.
Emma Kyriacou is a real-life ninja. Taking up Karate to help fight her Parkinson’s Disease, she’s co-founder of Good Moves and is passionate about promoting exercise to improve mobility and neuroplasticity. (Is that a word? It should be.)
Find out more at her personal site below.
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