Flying Lessons

""[A]pathy is a great part of the disease and if you succumb to it, the disease will take over."" Apathy, however, would hardly apply to Grady-Fitchett and her fight against Parkinson's disease. Diagnosed at the age of 47, Grady-Fitchett has spent the last 17 years contacting specialists and investigating treatments to combat the progressive loss of motor control, manifested by tremors, stiffness and difficulty in walking, that is brought on by the disease. In this feisty, engaging memoir, she describes her experience with a variety of prescription drugs, including deprenyl and Sinemet, that alleviated her symptoms for varying periods of time. Firmly believing that Parkinson's is a psychological as well as physical affliction, Grady-Fitchett refused to curtail her active life and provides an entertaining account of life on the North Carolina horse farm she purchased in 1983. A commercial real estate broker, she describes not only everyday challenges but unusual ones, such as her acceptance of the love of the man who would become her fourth husband well after she had given up hope of love, and her year-long legal battle with corporate lawyers who ""would move in for the kill"" at the first sign of weakness. Only two aspects of this brave medical memoir could be improved: the poetry (""Animals are thick with coat/ snakes shed their skin/ and crabs' shells soften"") and the ending: Grady-Fitchett is a candidate for fetal transplant surgery later this year and readers will no doubt like to know. (Nov.)