I think it’s pretty obvious to everyone that I have Parkinson’s disease. I limp along like a three-legged dog (albeit a perky one) and sometimes my right arm and hand tremble.
Still, I naturally seek out ways to “pass.” Here are three:
1. Eating cocktail peanuts. If I’m at a party and there’s a bowl of nuts, I use my left hand to grab a few and pop them one at a time into my mouth. I look completely normal. Pass! It would be impossible to use my right hand for this. I’d never be able to maneuver the individual nuts around with my fingers.
2. Passwords at the computer. As I can’t rely on my right hand to type anymore, I use passwords whose letters are all on the left side of the keyboard. I can type them lickety-split, just like in the old days. Pass! Note: When I first started doing this I sardonically chose words that were, well, sardonic: dread; swear; dead666; dreaded; crass; tears; greed; dreary; fear. Now, though, my mood is upbeat and I choose words like aware, reward, faster, reverse.
3. Putting on my winter coat. If I put on the left sleeve first, my right arm reaches in back of me and flails, flaps and flounders in failure. Solution: Put the right sleeve on first. The left arm has no problem reaching back and slipping sleekly into its sleeve. Pass! (Long term solution: move to Florida.)
