Of all of the things that I aspired to be while growing up, a rock star was not one of them. Fire fighter or astronaut, maybe when I was young; an entrepreneur and business owner, done that; a boxer and a tribe builder are both yet to be realized. But who we are, or what we do, is quite different from how we are treated or made to feel.

Telling A Story

We were in Portland last week as the guests of USWorldMeds for two reasons; one, to share my story with others with Parkinson’s of how I have experienced relief from my symptoms since I started on Apokyn about 18-months ago. For this I was prepared and had been for some time. Easy, just tell my story like I had done before; after all, it is my story so I should be able to get it right. But the second reason, to be filmed telling my story and in a wide variety of settings where I could be shown living a “normal life”, I was unsure.

Poise and composure are not what I consider to be my spiritual gifts, and both would be needed if I were to communicate eloquently on cue. But there was even more, I was expected to eat an ice cream cone slowly while walking down the sidewalk without having it drip down my chin and on to my clean shirt. Was that even possible? Clearly their expectations were high.

I put my trust in the creative people, the director and cameramen, and our hosts. I was all in.

Can You Repeat the Question?

It was a fantastic experience! I didn’t know what to expect on Monday morning when I first walked through the door of the house that was the setting, all I saw were cords strewn all over the floor, lots of lights and microphones, and about 15 people packed into the kitchen and living room of a rather small home. Adjustments were made to the placement of books, to creases in the drapes and to the gaps in the couch cushions. It was all about the little things. A lot of work went into making something that was staged look casual and relaxed. These guys were good; they were rock stars.

With my shirt pressed and the folds in just the right places, make-up checked for shine, the questions came and the tape was running. One of the creatives, Bill would ask a question and I was to respond by restating the question as if I were on Jeopardy. Bill would then confer with the director, Matt, to make sure that he was satisfied. Occasionally, they would leave the room and we would retake the question. Little did I know there were another 6-8 people in another room watching and listening, one of which was Lisa. She knew her turn would be next!

Day one of filming was over before we knew it. Day two would be quite different. Instead of sitting on a couch answering questions, we were going to make a few stops in the Portland area; dining out, home-improvements, ice cream and biking were all on the docket.

“Don’t worry,” I was reminded, “the editing will make this look great!” as we were eating olives and greens in a small Italian restaurant. Lisa was taking ques from the director so she would try to get me to move, talk or laugh. My instructions were simple; just relax, don’t look in the direction of camera and keep the food out of my teeth. Throughout the experience, there was plenty of affirmation that we were doing great and the content that they were filming would work well. They knew what they were looking for and apparently we delivered.

As we said good-bye, it hit me what these guys were able to do; they got me to allow them into the most inter part of my world and make my inner circle even bigger, and that is no small task. This was another much-needed step in my journey.

Gracia

On behalf of Lisa and myself, I would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Bill and Guido, to Matt, Damon and Paul, to Elsa, and to the entire USWorldMeds organization for making us feel so special. You calmed our fears and took us in as one of your own when we were so far out of our comfort zone. You treated us like we were rock stars.

It was an amazing week. Thank you to all who made it possible.

Thanks for reading, liking and sharing,

Al and his lovely care partner and wife Lisa.