I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in May 2000. My spouse, Julie and I have been attending every Parkinson’s Symposium in Washington State since 2001. Both Julie and I have learned a lot about managing my Parkinson’s disease.
In November of 2008 we attended the APDA (Washington State Chapter) and Northwest Parkinson’s Foundation Symposium at the Sea-Tac Hilton Conference Center. It was an excellent day spent with half the day focused on exercising your mind and the other half day on exercising your body.
Usually after lunch it’s time for my nap and at past conferences some of the speakers have managed to help me get to that sleep I so rarely get at night. However this past conference kudos go to Jeff Shaw, PsyD for keeping me not only awake, but focused on what he was saying and doing.
Naturally to get my attention Dr. Shaw had to be talking about Gadgets. I love gadgets. In fact my nickname on the computer is “Gadget Junkie”. What Dr. Shaw presented was the Nintendo Wii Fit system and how it could be used to help people with Parkinson’s disease practice their balance. In a demonstration of the Nintendo Wii Fit Dr. Shaw had a person (for presentation purposes he planted his spouse in the audience) and had her demonstrate the exercises / games that would be beneficial to Parkinson’s people with balance issues.
I was very impressed and during the car drive home I spoke with my wife at great length about how I could benefit from such a device. After several hours of discussion, more hours of negotiation and many hours of whining it came down to NO! Its just another computer toy for the Gadget Junkie.
No to me doesn’t mean NO! All no means to me is that I have not proved my case to get a YES! So on my next visit to the Booth Gardner Parkinson’s Center I asked my doctor if she felt that the Nintendo Wii Fit system really had merit in helping me with MY balance issues. The answer was yes and I explained the dilemma I was having with the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) in my family, my doctor whipped out her prescription pad and wrote a prescription for a Nintendo Wii Fit system to be used 3 times a week, one hour each time on the BALANCE games…… errrrrr I mean “EXERCISES”.
That night during dinner I said to Julie that I’d like to discuss the Nintendo Wii Fit system a bit more. Julie pointed out that we have already had that discussion and had come to a decision. Whereupon I pulled out my prescription for the Nintendo Wii Fit system and said…. “Doctor’s orders” and would she like to discuss this further with my doctor. It was then agreed that I would get my Nintendo Wii Fit system.
The rest of the dinner was pretty quiet. No small talk, actually no talk. After about 10 minutes of total silence Julie looked up from her plate and asked me when I’m going to see my eye doctor. I said January or February; why? Looking me directly in the eyes Julie said, “Don’t even THINK of coming home with a prescription for Large Screen LCD or Plasma HDTV!”