Paul D.

Paul D. is at the peak of his career as general secretary of a bank when he receives a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease in 2011. He receives the diagnosis, which is preceded by incorrect treatment, by post. Exercise is important to Paul D.; among other things, he does cardio and strength training at the fitness centre. He also practices and teaches various dances. At the time of the interview, he has been living with the disease for nine years. In 2017, he started deep brain stimulation therapy, which was three years ago at the time of the interview. As a hobby, he is very busy on the computer. Age at the time of diagnosis: 50 Treatment: Deep brain stimulation

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AUDIO

Diagnosis by letter

Paul D. receives the diagnosis by letter.

Video Interview

TRANSCRIPT

In March I got the diagnosis. Then I was totally lost, I was glad that I had a diagnosis, that's what I said. But I felt totally lost. When you get a letter home and it says so - it wasn't quite that bad - but it said, "We're pleased to inform you that you have a left-sided tremor, Parkinson's." And then you're like, "Yeah, and now what do I do with this?" And then I was then ordered to M [place], because I then had to ask the family doctor, "What is actually Parkinson's?" and so. And then they also apologized, because that had gone totally wrong. Then a resident or doctor, I don't remember, wrote me the letter without thinking much. [...] I had no idea and of course everything had gone wrong for me, so to speak. Yes. So after the initial diagnosis I felt a bit lost at first, until I knew what it was all about. You know, then you feel like next year you're going to be dead or something. I had no idea what Parkinson's was.

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