One early Saturday morning, into the clinic shuffles what appears to be a frail and irritable elderly man. The look on his face is that of a man who is undoubtedly the least bit interested in the weekend of treatment ahead of him. This gentleman’s name was Clyde (name changed to protect patient privacy) and he had signed up for a Parkinson’s Retreat which involves an intense weekend of multimodal physical therapy interventions designed to slow the progression of Parkinson’s Disease. As a brand-new Doctor of Physical Therapy student, whose working knowledge of Parkinson’s Disease didn’t extend much further than knowing that Michael J. Fox and Muhammed Ali had the disease, I felt compelled to also sign up for this event to gain experience working with this population.
During our briefing, we were given the event itinerary, which outlined the multitude of activities the participants would engage in. My duty as a volunteer would be to help safely facilitate these activities. Clyde, as previously mentioned, would be my assigned participant for the remainder of the weekend. When combining my limited involvement in patient contact outside of traditional outpatient orthopedics with the intimidating nature of my participant’s demeanor, I felt we were the most unlikely of teammates. Our first activity was known as BoomWhackers, which is a high-energy and high-intensity percussion exercise designed to simulate the pounding of drums to facilitate larger amplitude movements that Parkinson’s Disease impairs. Prior to beginning this activity, my mind was filled with questions such as: “How can I adapt this activity to help Clyde be more involved?,” “Should we do the activity seated?,” “Do I need an extra pair of hands to keep him up?.” However, before I even had a moment to devise a plan, the music was blaring and the activity had begun. Much to my surprise, the transformation my participant would soon undergo would remain ingrained in my memory and forever change my perception of Parkinson’s Disease and patient care as a whole.
Clyde turned into a rockstar in just a matter of moments. Watching him pound his drum and shout out his cadence quickly made me realize my role in this activity would not be to find a way to adapt the exercise, but to keep him from overexerting himself. Through his efforts, Clyde made it clear he was not going to allow Parkinson’s Disease to slow him down. For the next 15 minutes, we both banged away at our drums and on occasion, I’d aid him when he would freeze or lose his balance. As the music volume began winding down and the audible sounds of heavy breathing radiated through the clinic, I reflected on what I had just witnessed. Despite his pronounced exclamations and high-amplitude movements, I recalled that over the duration of the activity he wore the same emotionless expression as he had when he walked into the clinic. It donned on me that I had completely misjudged Clyde.
As I learned more about the disease over the weekend, I realized that it wasn’t a frail and irritable man with Parkinson’s shuffling into clinic that early morning but rather, it was Clyde, the warrior. A man who arrived to battle his own brain chemistry through dedication and tenacity. Although his appearance was disparate to any warrior stereotype, it was obvious he harbored the heart of a champion behind his external traits of hypomimia, bradykinesia, and stooped posture. I learned a valuable lesson over this weekend. It is important that we don’t limit our patients through our own perceptions of their abilities but rather, we must empower them to take the form of their highest potential.
The following quote by Hippocrates has never been more fitting than when reflecting on my memorable experience with Clyde: “It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has.” -Hippocrates
Sam Sahhar is a Doctor of Physical Therapy student at Northern Arizona University on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus. He previously graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Exercise and Wellness from Arizona State University. Upon graduation from NAU he looks to pursue a career as a physical therapist who specializes in the care of individuals with neurological conditions (Parkinson’s Disease, Stroke, Traumatic Brain Injury, Spinal Cord Injury, etc.). When he is not too busy with school he enjoys working out at the gym with his brothers or playing SpikeBall with his classmates!