Storyline Fall 2020

JP: She’d sent me for an MRI … That was
going to be the next step, because that
would confirm what was going on – it would
show that there was some deterioration
in my brain structure. Getting the MRI
was fun … Because of the tremor, I had to
be physically restrained, so it looked like
something out of a bad movie, with all these
leather straps tying me down to go into the
machine. A couple of weeks later I went for
the results – fairly terrified, to be honest, as
you might imagine. It’s been hard for our
kids, my wife, telling them this. And so going
for the results was a fairly traumatic day for
me. And she played the video multiple times
and found nothing going wrong in my head.
Which was a great thing.
HW: Yeah.
JP: It’s funny to say there’s nothing in my
head … (laughs) At the same time, then, they
didn’t really know what to do, so she began
different treatments, different protocols of
medicine, and I ended up taking a cocktail
of drugs that she said probably won’t work
but there’s no harm in it. And I’ve been
taking those for quite some time now, and
they have actually helped me considerably.
The tremor’s not disappeared – when I’m
off meds I feel it – but it has significantly
brought it under control. My quality of life
has returned mostly to what it was, and I
can function fairly well. You’ll still see me
shake a bit onstage – I still use the podium
to steady my hand – but I’ve got a whole lot
more ahead of me than behind me right
now, and I feel very encouraged by the way
the meds have helped me, for her insight
and her patience to not give up on me, and
most of all for God for giving me the courage
to press on.
HW: I was just going to ask you that … The
man in Mark 10, he’s persistent …
JP: Yeah …
HW: Do you find yourself being persistent in
that pursuit of complete healing?
JP: It is … I mean, it – I’m grateful for what it
is. I can drive my car again – for a long time
I wasn’t doing that – I couldn’t handwrite,
I couldn’t type – some of you would know
that, I had dictation software … There were
a lot of challenges. Many of those things,
with the rehab centre I’ve been to, I’ve been
able to learn how to do again. I’ve been
very grateful for my physiotherapist and
occupational therapist. A lot of things that
were really hard for me I can do now … I
can walk without tripping or falling, I can
write sort of legibly, I can type again – a lot
of great things have happened. The meds
have very few side effects, they don’t do
what other things have done to me, and they
help a lot. When I wake up in the morning it’s
difficult, if I wake up during the night it’s very
difficult. But the rest of the time I do well.
And it’s reminded me of a couple of things
… One, that God works in all sorts of ways.
And in my journey with this, part of it was
a very miraculous, instantaneous change;
and part of it through taking medicine. And
medicine comes from things that He gave
us in this world in the first place and He
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