2018/2
I quickly arrived at a point of awareness where I recognised that, although I had been able to free myself from any evidence of the Parkinson’s itself, I was living with significant systemic dysfunctions that may or may not have fed into the degenerative process that was ultimately recognisable as Parkinson’s. It became clear to me that I needed to listen carefully to my body (something that I had failed to do through most of my life) to identify and get help to understand these dysfunctions, and then to begin to find ways of addressing them. As always, I have enjoyed delving into the science behind what has happened to me, identifying the means of dealing with each issue and then working on the fixes. I continue that endeavour still.
Once again, I was moving into an area where little or no support, and sometimes total scepticism, was all I could expect from mainstream medical practice. There were exceptions thankfully.
All along I have had a feeling that I was being led into this process through the gradual increase in awareness of which issues were causing me the greatest impact at any point in time. Initially, the long standing arthritic deterioration in my knees, particularly the right, was limiting my capacity to function without restriction. Having freed myself from the Parkinson’s I was not prepared to then be functionally restricted in other ways. It was no longer an option to have to turn sideways and crab down any slope I came to on my walks in order to minimise the pain. I was assessed and then had a full replacement of the right knee joint in October 2015. I managed to walk three of the ten-kilometre distance of the Burnie 10 charity event using crutches, only ten days after the operation. Crazy? Perhaps, but consistent with the approach I had taken with my Parkinson’s. I was pushed the rest of the way in a wheel chair by a couple of friends who, like me, were motivated to raise community awareness of Parkinson’s.
Early on in my ‘recovered’ phase I was able to meet with the Physician who looks after all of the Public System Parkinson’s patients in the North of Tasmania. He had expressed an interest in meeting with me to see for himself. He had been filled in on my previous state, and on my transition, by the Specialist Parkinson’s Nurse in my area. I was able to tell my story and show him the short videos of my previous status. He was amazed and delighted by what he saw and heard and has become a supporter and friend in the period since. I help him to bring a message of hope to people living with Parkinson’s and other neurological conditions and to encourage them to fight the degenerative process, not give in to it. I count myself fortunate to be in a position to regularly meet with these two wonderful human beings. With my lived experience of Parkinson’s and their expertise we are collectively better able to provide inspiration to others. I have since met some other Health Professionals who, impressed by my story, sometimes encourage patients to seek a dose of positivity from me. This is a point usually arrived at only when it becomes obvious that there is nothing more conventional approaches can offer.
Early in 2016 I heard that Dr Norman Doidge was coming to Australia to run some Professional Development Seminars including in Melbourne. He was my inspiration and I credit what I learned from his book “The Brain That Changes Itself” for providing me with a means of beating my Parkinson’s. I registered to attend the seminar in April.
I managed to find an indirect way of getting an email to Dr Doidge letting him know that I was to attend his seminar and also providing him with a summary of my story. He was very interested and we arranged to meet in Melbourne immediately prior to the seminar. I was able to show him videos of my function while significantly affected by the disease; they contrasted starkly with how he could see me function on meeting. He quickly concluded, as he put it, “you are the real McCoy Chris”. It was wonderful to receive such affirmation from someone of the standing of Norman – just an amazing experience.
On completing the session with Norman, I cheekily said to him that I would be extremely proud should he decide to use my story as a live case study if that fitted into the content of his seminar; he just gave a little grin but nothing was said.
I was wonderfully surprised on the first morning of the seminar to hear him call me out of the audience and to hear that he wanted to use me live provided I thought I could cope. Could I ever! It was a wonderful experience to be part of such a presentation; Norman’s expertise and global standing made it just wonderful and a privilege. Audience members were appreciative. Some were brought to tears; very humbling. The ovation at the end was remarkably affirming.
I asked Norman what he might suggest I do in order to give my brain its best chance of at least staying as healthy as it was then. He encouraged me to meet up with Dr Mark Rogers who runs a clinic in Adelaide (called Cold Laser Pain Relief) where light therapy (both low powered lasers and LEDs) is conducted. The clinic has progressed from focusing largely on management of chronic pain to also including treatment of neurological conditions / disease and brain injury. I made the contact and attended the clinic in late June and early July 2016.
The initial assessment at the clinic found evidence of significant inflammation and lymphatic system dysfunction in my neck and up into my head. The whole area was inflamed – neck and cranium. Thermal imaging technology allows this to be shown in coloured pictures that make it easy to see the areas of inflammation. The temperature variation, largely picking up on surface layer temperature, is known to reflect underlying inflammatory processes deep within the structure being thermally imaged.
I had three weeks of treatment at the clinic involving three hours each week day. After the treatment was completed the difference was amazing. Most of the inflammation had gone; the pre and post treatment images provide a startlingly clear representation of the change. On return to Tasmania I set up a red / near infra-red sauna in our small bathroom so that I could continue the process at home. I took about six months to arrive at a pain free state and for the effects of the Parkinson’s rigidity in my back, that had been so impactful for many years, to dissipate. I now have amazing freedom of movement in my cervical spine – in spite of the two fusions pre-dating the Parkinson’s diagnosis. I have the thermal images taken at the clinic both before and after treatment and these can be provided on request; see contact details at the end of this document.
Dr Doidge also introduced me to Martha and George Mack who run a business called “Listen and Learn Centre” in Melbourne. They utilise the Auditory Training therapies Norman describes in Chapter 8 of “The Brain’s Way of Healing” and work with children and young adults on the Autism Spectrum. They also utilise the Quantitative Electroencephalogram (QEEG) technologies that allow for mapping of brain activity while performing cognitive tasks; they are able to present the output in user friendly maps of the brain – Norman loves them and uses them in his presentation. He indicated that the work these two terrific people and their staff are doing is right at the leading edge worldwide.
[2024 update: Martha and George’s url now redirects to NeuroCare Australia: it will give you an overview if you have not dealt with this before or would like to refresh.]
I was asked “if [I] would mind being tested on this equipment to see if there was anything it might be able to do to add insight into just what had happened, or at least what is happening in [my] brain post recovery”. Absolutely!!
Immediately after Norman’s seminar George utilised the QEEG process on me. From just the raw traces appearing on the screen (he has done thousands) George could see that the point of differentiation between me and most others living with the likes of Parkinson’s Disease may be that I have pretty amazing cognitive ability to attend to a task. My woodwork being the most likely input to the honing of my skill. It was another amazing experience. The QEEG actual captured the process and change in my brain that had occurred every day as I attended to the task of doing my woodwork with dysfunctional Parky hands and fingers. During the QEEG I felt as relaxed and lost in the process as I always had in my workshop, after starting from a point where my brain was in a state that Norman refers to as “noisy”. I was able to achieve a state that I have seen described by Psychologists as ‘flow’. It appears likely that this flow state had been instrumental in helping me achieve recovery.
How I beat my Parkinson's Disease 