The Disease: Pacquiao’s Parkinson’s is a shocker

(Originally written on Jan. 11, 2013)

The Disease: Pacquiao’s Parkinson’s is a shocker

 Opinion by William Wilczewski

I was stunned—like when I was told the Easter Bunny didn’t really exist—when I heard on Jan. 4 that world boxing icon Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao might have Parkinson's disease.

It floored me like Pacquiao was floored recently in a knockout loss to Mexican foe Juan Manuel Marquez.

You see, aside from Muhammad Ali and Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach, I have a much more personal connection to The Disease.

Mom, who has suffered from it—and isn’t exactly getting better from it—for the last eight or more years.

The same mother who would not let me—the self-proclaimed next Sugar Ray Leonard—box as a youngster growing up. Actually, we were glad when she let my twin brother and I play football starting our sophomore year in high school, but Dad played football, too, in high school, so that was easier to convince.

Mom did let me get a speed bag as a young buck, but after it was placed in the basement, I bet her and Dad wished they hadn’t after all the steady, rapid thumping would vibrate through the house at ALL hours!

My twin did finally snap the bag’s platform in half after doing pull-ups on it—and my bet is that Mom and Dad somehow put him up to it, but that’s a whole nother novela that I will save for another time.

Anyway, next time you see Ali, Roach or Michael J. Fox—to name a few of the more famous sufferers—I’m sure your heart will drop. But, when you see the woman that gave you life in the same condition, the only words are AGONIZINGLY and HELPLESS!

That’s how I feel when I talk to her on the phone, noticing that her hand must be shaking.

That’s how I feel when I visit, and see it with my own four eyes.

That’s how I feel when I lay down at night and think of her—sometimes keeping me awake way past a sensible bedtime.

To top it all off, Mom recently had three seizures and stroke that had her in the hospital for at least two weeks over Christmas. Luckily she was home for New Year’s—and we can only hope 2013 will be better, but as much as we don’t want to admit it, life—in these cases—seldom works that way.

Dr. Rustico Jimenez, president of Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines, told radio dzMM that among the early signs of Parkinson's being exhibited by Pacquiao include stuttering and hand twitching.

Pacquiao denies it.

Let’s hope he’s right.

If he’s wrong, though, let’s hope he accepts it so he catches it early enough—if that’s actually possible—because I’ve witnessed first-hand the stuttering, hand twitching—and dementia that comes with Parkinson’s.

It will be those same twitching hands that might see this column some day in Buffalo, N.Y.

Mom, though, will read it, nonetheless; a fighter herself, just like Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao.

One can only hope, though, that a cure or some remedy to help this infliction will be on the horizon soon—for all those mentioned above and all those that haven’t been OR God-forbid for those that undeniably will in the future.