NeuroTalk Support Groups - From Respected Cardiologist to PD Patient...'Life in the Balance' Chronicles His PD

From Respected Cardiologist to Parkinson's Patient
'Life in the Balance' Chronicles Doctor's Journey Into Own Illness

June 25, 2008

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=5237946&page=1

Thomas Graboys seemed to have it all. He was a talented and well-respected cardiologist, on staff at Harvard Medical School and running a thriving private practice.

But at age 49, he was diagonsed with Parkinson's disease, and a progressive dementia marked by confusion, violent nightmares and hallucinations. In 2005, Graboys was forced to give up his practice.

Graboys says he still hopes to take care of others by sharing what he has learned during his ordeal. His book, "Life in the Balance," is a memoir of his journey from doctor to patient.

You can find more information at www.TomGraboys.com.

Click here to visit the National Parkinson Foundation's website.

Click here for the Lewy Body Dementia Association's website.

Click to visit the Lown Cardiovascular Center's website.

Read an excerpt of Graboys' memoir below.

Chapter One: "My Days"

Nothing is second nature to me any more. No task is too simple, no activity so routine that I can do it without forethought. Is the glass right side up, or will I pour orange juice all over the counter again? When I leave the kitchen to walk to the bedroom, how will I get there? At the party tonight, where will the stairs be, and how will I navigate them? Will I be able to join the conversation? Or will I be standing in a corner, nearly catatonic?

For social gatherings, I have what I call my cassettes: a repertoire of conversational riffs on various subjects that will allow me to enter the conversation and, with luck, appear to be a reasonable facsimile of the old Tom Graboys. Can I pull it off? Can I act the part and mask the reality of dementia? One of my goals in social situations is to have people go away saying, "You know, Tom seemed pretty good." It allays the anxieties of friends and colleagues when you look and sound good, even if they cannot fathom the effort it took to muster such a performance.

Without my cassettes, entering a group conversation is like trying to get on the freeway traveling at twenty miles an hour while the traffic is rushing by at seventy. Slowness, an all-encompassing mental and physical slowness, has descended upon me. It is not going to lift.

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