In 1991, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. I was 44.
My professional life has been a varied one. It began as a manager, introducing advertising to TV, followed by studying business management in French, English and German. My career has led me to different countries, including Belgium, England, France, Germany, Morocco, Senegal and the Ivory Coast. It was an exciting and innovative time, carrying out negotiations with big multinationals as well as small enterprises in fields as varied as TV advertising, packaging, furniture, metal construction, and beverages including cider and calvados!
1991 was to be a great year. I felt that I had all the answers. But suddenly life changed all the questions. I decided that I would become a self-employed consultant in Strategy and Business, but early that year I had a heart attack. Later, in the same year, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
For the next six years, life was fine. To deal with this strange, chronic, neurological condition that had jumped on me without any notice, I tried to become well informed about Parkinson’s. I became a member of the French Parkinson’s Association, working with Madame de Seze, and met with lots of people from the EPDA, who throughout the years have become my friends. I was also elected as board member of the Fédération Française des Groupements Parkinsoniens. My professional life was also fine; I was gaining big, regular contracts.
But early in 1997, when I was in Budapest teaching a week-long course on Transitional Economy, I collected completed evaluation forms from my Hungarian students and noticed that the majority of them disliked the way I used the flip chart. My handwriting had become smaller and smaller and at the end of my presentation, noone could read or understand what I was illustrating! Of course, there were technical tricks that could be used, like preparing slides ahead of time, but reading the students comments I suddenly realised that the ‘honeymoon’ period I had experienced with Parkinson’s had fooled me. Parkinson’s was not just a limiting illness, it was a chronic neurological disease and it was becoming worse and worse with time.
The main questions I had to find answers to was: how much longer will I be able to expand my business? How should I protect myself now that the ‘honeymoon’ period was over? Was I likely to become more and more disabled? In fact, I did become more and more disabled and, to get some rest, I went into hospital and had an operation, Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). But that is another story that you can read about on Rewrite Tomorrow.
In France, as well as in other countries, the general rule is that: employees are better protected than those who are self-employed, and it is difficult to become employed and to keep the position, especially if a person is disabled.
After reviewing my strengths and weaknesses, I participated in a three-week course on environmental matters and met with the General Manager of a regional agency specialising in environmental affairs who needed its company to be audited. I convinced him that it would be much cheaper for him to hire me and to use me as a consultant. Later, they asked me to manage their website, a job that I could do from home.
In July 2003, I benefited from DBS and in September of the same year, I received a decent pension. One thing I have learned is that you probably can’t win the fight against Parkinson’s, but you certainly can rewrite tomorrow!
See also EPDA Plus Issue 5
