Peas, "Pills," & Parkinson's

List Price $19.95
Paperback 174 pages
ISBN-10  1424137292
ISBN-13  978-1424137299
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Peas, "Pills" and Parkinson's is the story of Alice Crooker's battle with Parkinson's disease and her unusual life with highly irregular people and situations.  From her birth, when her mother suffered from post partum psychosis to the shocking diagnosis of PD at age 49, she uses humor and insight to describe her battle with this misunderstood and relatively neglected disease. 

Her struggles include a series of mis-diagnoses and a long trail of abandoned doctors prior to finding the competent team of physicians at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle.  There she was given hope and a medical procedure which gave her back her life. This is a story of struggle and triumph, despair and hope and an abiding faith in God.  . 

All proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the Virginia Mason Hospital Foundation for improving the lives of Parkinson’s patients. 

Your interest and support are greatly appreciated.

HOW YOU CAN  FIND HOPE TOO

Happily, this is not a teeth-gnashing knee-rattling needle-poking book.  While the author’s mid-life battle with doctors, hospitals and Parkinson’s Disease informs the narrative, the book offers much more than an insider’s view of a debilitating illness.  Crooker is a plucky woman whose irreverent wit sparkles through a lively telling of life lived on the edge of normalcy.  It is a gutsy, gritty tale of survival in a dysfunctional family driven by oddball eccentricity, yet rooted in interdependency and love.  It also is a story of bootstrap courage in the face of daunting odds.  Peas, Pills and Parkinson’s deserves your attention.

W. Lane Rogers                                                        

Arizona Capitol Times

When you read this book, you will feel as though Alice is talking to you...You will be inspired, entertained  and amused but, most of all thankful.  Not everyone suffers from Parkinson's and for that we should all be thankful.  Peas, Pills and Parkinson's is a snapshot of Alice's life from childhood to adulthood--a life that, in may ways, prepared Alice for the catastrophic effect that a debilitating, neuroloigical disease can have.  Throughout the book, Alice never loses her sense of fun and her ability to see the positive side of life.

Shelagh Watkins, United Kingdom

Alice Crooker writes of coping with life-changing disease from a personal and positive persepective that is both enjoyable and enlightening.  The book offers insights to life and to her battle with adversity.

John Huether, Washington

This story is not just  about a person dealing with Parkinson's disease, but about...proper diagnosis and treatment.  It is a human interest story about a very special person. 

Abe F. March, Germany

Peas,   Pills and Parkinson's could have been titled Wit and True Grit because that is what Alice Crooker brings... to this book. Ir is a story about trials and triumphs, and courage and humor in the face of a debilitating malady.  Even under the most adverse conditions..the true grit of Crooker's wit shines.

Ron F, Kruger, Kentucky

I began Peas, Pills and Parkinson's in an airport and finiished it ot on the airplane before I arrived at my destination.  The problem was controlling my laughter and my tears...  This is an outstanding book of real life experiences met with determination and hope.  Although Alice's life had difficulties, she never lost her sense of humor. 

Carol Troestler, Wisconsin

DOOMSDAY    

      The charmed life I had taken for granted came to an abrupt end two days before Thanksgiving, 1996.   I  still find it hard to describe the hurt and outrage I felt upon being formally introduced to Parkinson's disease or simply PD.

      I was in the office of a physician specializing in neurological diseases.  His office was in upscale Belleuve, Washington, the fast-growing city east of Seattle, across Lake Washington.  At  the end of an hour-long neurological examination, he pointed to a chair across from his desk and said, "Please sit down and we will talk."

      I took a seat and waited for him to say some of the things I was desperate to hear.

      Such as, "What's eating you anyway?  Can't you see that I am a very busy man with many people to help?  Why don't you get a hobby and enjoy yourself and be thankful you're such a fine specimen of health and vitality.   Certainly  you can find something better to do with your time than to sit around imagining that you have a horrific health problem.    You are a textbook hypochrondiac!  I've never met anyone as self-centered as you.

       Instead, without mincing words, the doctor said, "You may continue to work and you  will be 'all right' for about ten years.  You have Parkinson's disease."

       If he had thrown a bucket of ice water on me, or poked thumbtacks straight into my eyeballs, he could not have done more to shatter the fantasies I had dreamed up to shield me from the dreaded diagnosis.