I like Garth, he likes Elvis....

Yesterday, he sent me a facebook message asking me to read over a letter of appeal based on his settlement amount for the class action Mirapex law suit.  I read over it & it brought back memories of a time when I thought I was going to lose him.  I thought his life would end because I knew he was spiraling out of control but I didn't realize it was his medication, I was & am 800kms away, so I had no idea at the time what he was up against.

My best friend, my friendship soul mate, my one person who is more real with me sometimes than even Jeff is because he doesn't have to live with me, my Robbie.

For those of you who don't know 'my' Robbie, we have been close since we met, best friends for most of it. I was 15, he was 17 when we first met.  I fell madly in teenage love with this wacky, loud, impulsive, attention drawing, Elvis loving teenage boy.  I saw beneath the layers of  'look at me' somehow or other, and I knew that we were meant to be...I thought then that I was meant to fall in love with him, he was going to become a famous singer, we were going to live in a mansion on a hill. Oh, the mind of a smitten 15 year old! In reality, we were meant to be the absolute best of friends.  We were meant to be there for each other no matter what terrifying shit life was going to throw at us.  We were meant to have such a bond that 7 years of not seeing each other meant nothing, and in 2 seconds we were back to being us.

Robbie was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's Disease when he was 27 or 28, he's now 35 & has had to deal with more than any person should.  It's bad enough to find out at such a young age that your brain & body are fighting against what you want to be able to do, but then to end up taking a drug that is supposed to help you & ends up doing anything but.

Mirapex caused Robbie to become a person he isn't, it made him compulsive, it made him lie, it made him someone I didn't want to be friends with because I didn't know what was really happening.  He pawned all of his musical equipment to use for drugs & sex, anyone who knows Robbie Tucker, knows that this is NOT  him.  This is not the person he has ever been. He cheated on his partner, he would wander late at night looking for hook ups, he thought claiming he could raise 1 million dollars for the Parkinson's Society of Canada was a rational amount.  He was clearly, not in his right mind.  It was unnerving & terrifying. How he survived that period of time is beyond me.

Fast forward to today, Robbie is amazing.  He is down right inspiring.  He took charge of his life, he got a new neurologist, when his Mirapex prescribing one told him that he simply was bi-polar & needed more meds, instead of taking him seriously with his concerns.  He is deeply into yoga, clean eating & is amazing in the kitchen. He is now The Healthy Bitch, and makes lots of different healthy snacks that he sells at the yoga studio he attends. He volunteers at a food kitchen, he bikes anywhere that he can, he loves life in a way I don't think he ever has.

He amazes me, he challenges me, he makes me feel guilty for being such a lazy schmuck who has a body that works just fine but doesn't get used ever.  He makes me want to be a healthy bitch too!

Robbie, makes me more proud that he'll ever know.  I went from being a teenager in  puppy love to a best friend who loves him so deeply & unconditionally, I cannot imagine my life without Robbie Tucker. He isn't just my friend, he is absolutely my family.

As I was saying when I started this entry, yesterday Robbie asked me to look over his letter of appeal on the settlement offered to him. I won't get into exact specifics but to be offered less than a thousand dollars for the damage done to his life makes me angry.  His life could have been lost because of the side effects of this medication, and the amount offered to him is like a slap in the face.  I, truly hope that Robbie & all others who have had to deal with the insurmountable financial & personal loss are compensated properly, however that may be.

Robbie Tucker, I am so incredible proud to even know you, I can't imagine how I got so lucky to be your best friend for life.  You are such an inspiring, strong & innovative human being.  I look forward to watching us as we grow old & get more bitter with life & each other! I look forward to watching you kick Parkinson's ass & never giving in, because we both know that you are the ABSOLUTE most stubborn person ever!

Peener loves you Toilet man!! Go laugh in the face of poop or Parkinson's or something......

This was Christmas formal 1994, I was 15, he was 17.