ET Fun at Disney World! NOT!

Greetings fellow shakers from Orlando, Florida! Thought I’d share how my visit went at Disney World last year as I’ve really progressed with learning how to tell people what ET is, get over the social anxiety, etc. Because it was a DAY. As in not so great.

(Long post, but there’s a positive, that’s what we all are striving for here on this blog, I know I do)

Husband and I have lived in OTown for 18 years. I LOATHE the theme parks. My husband doesn’t seek them out but likes rides. But before he retired, he designed restaurant and retail stores all over the planet for high tourist attractions, so when his former boss (who gave us the opportunity to live in Dubai a few years back) called saying he’s back from Saudi and had free Disney Passes, would we like to go to see the new Star Wars attraction? They both were curious to see how the attraction was planned out. And I was game (knowing I’d hate it and likely tremor crazy due to overstimulation) since as we haven’t seen him in 7 years, and because of him we got to play in Asia for a for awhile.

Addressing ET with our friend - we first started off getting an am coffee before trekking off. Whilst waiting 20 minutes for our drinks, we just had small talk. He asked what I’ve been up to. Said not much, apart from having laser eye surgery make my vision WORSE (there will be a future post on that), I said I have Essential Tremor. Same family as Parkinson’s (which it is) just we shake differently. I showed him my hands saying this is mild, my typical day. And showed him my medical ID bracelet calling it my “street cred” and that my husband is a saint for how much he helps me.

They opted to go for a ride and I said I’d just walk and people watch. It was 90F and sunny, but I take the heat very well, was completely covered up, hat, sunscreen, tons of water. So I was comfortable. I was looking up the park’s restaurants for our upcoming lunch. Noticed my tremors were getting worse. PLUS thousands of people, and the signage was terrible. Kept going in circles trying to get out of different parts of the park while navigating thousands of tourists, strollers, and electric scooters. We finally met up and were waiting about ten minutes for a seat at a nice, quiet, adult oriented steak house. I was full Twitch mode (thank you baby brother for naming me that when you were 13).

We met at remote beer wagon next to restaurant and by the look on my husband’s face, I could tell he realized I was signaling it’s pretty bad. So we all grabbed a pint and then went to our table. Okay. And it was bloody freezing! Probably 65-67F. That is a major temp change! My shakes are now exhausting me. Slurred speech and all of that which can be a symptom of tremor overload.

Dear husband cut my filet minion into bite size pieces (excellent by the way) and after fails with silverware, just used my hands. At a nice restaurant. Don’t worry, I always wash my hands!

Take aways:

1. It’s taken me several years to accept my ET and I no longer care what passerby’s think or the looks. It’s clear I have a disability. I wanted steak.
2. I used to have major social anxiety at meetings, eating, drinking. If I hadn’t filled in our friend about my ET, he’d probably have freaked out at lunch. But he didn’t. He wasn’t concerned. I said sorry I’m not too talkative right now, just need to chill out a bit.
3. Reflected later at home how I used to try to hide my ET, or deflect, “I shouldn’t have had that second cup of coffee,” and still often freaked out others around me who were concerned or thought I was an alcoholic, etc.

So that’s where my brain was that day, and even though ET is a daily struggle for most of us here, take the small triumphs as a silver lining.

Have a great day!