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10/26/2006: "Rush Limbaugh and Parkinson's Disease"

Rush Limbaugh has recently gone on record deriding Michael J. Fox for exaggerating the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. While I strongly disagree with Fox's advocacy of government sponsored embryonic stem cell research, I think Limbaugh is being a real jerk for trying to smear Fox based on his symptoms.

My father was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease about 15 years ago, and some of the symptoms likely showed up before that. His father also had it, as did several of his relatives. He is taking a number of advanced medications under the direction of the foremost Parkinson's disease researchers in Canada. Even so, his symptoms swing wildly from hour to hour, completely unpredicably. He doesn't have much shaking, but does sway like Limbaugh saw Fox do, and has severely impaired mobility and speech. When he is good, his speech is as clear as it was 20 years ago. When he is bad, he is in constant motion, and it takes all his concentration to get his words out, and even then it's only slightly better than mumbling.

It's frustrating to watch, sometimes. I wish he could just slow down and stop sometimes. It is impossible to predict, for him and for us, when he will be coherent and when he won't. And as indicated earlier, it can change in as little as a half an hour from one extreme to the other. The only thing we know is that stress frequently makes it worse.

Mr. Limbaugh, given the number of years M. J. Fox has had Parkinson's disease, and that (from what I know) it is progressing fairly rapidly, I can say quite confidently that it is highly unlikely that Fox was faking anything. It really does get that bad, and it really is uncomfortable to watch. You owe him a public apology.