A misdiagnosis and a possible misquote walk into a bar...
Matt Russell was in his late 20’s when he was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s. He was a young improviser living in Chicago, the Mecca for improv performers and, relatively speaking, on top of the world just moments before this news. Over lunch, he told his girlfriend about the diagnosis and some of the scary news about what it meant for his future. She stood up and replied, “You don’t need a girlfriend, you need a nurse.” She walked out.
If you’ve heard or used the line, “Blood is thicker than water”, you might consider Matt’s next natural step to call family. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a family he felt that would support this news the way he wanted. So he called what the family he felt would do that for him: his old teammates at ComedySportz Sacramento.
They said they were there for him and would welcome him back. He took them up on it and headed west. He decided that if he had PD, he was going to go even further into doing what he wanted to do - namely improv - and do it as well and for as long as his body and mind would allow. When he couldn’t perform any more, he’d coach. After that…he had more dire plans.
But a funny thing happened on the way to those plans; Matt met the love of his life Krista, who was also a player in Sacramento ComedySportz. Not only did she not walk out on him, she married him. This led Matt to a deeper understanding of that quote about blood and water, and why, in his opinion, it’s a misquote.
According to Matt, the original quote is “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”, which roughly means that a true bond, built on love and respect is stronger than an assumed one of genetics. Matt has lived this and points directly to the family he’s created in ComedySportz as evidence.
“These are people who have been with me through breakups, births, miscarriages, cancer,” Russell says. “Maybe even more importantly, through just doing comedy and having some of the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. That’s the blood of battle. That’s thicker than the water of the womb.”
Matt and Krista loved what they built so much in Sacramento, that they decided to take a piece of it and build their own version of it in another city - namely, Portland, Maine. But before heading out there, Matt wanted clarity on his Parkinson’s. There was something that never quite added up to him about the symptoms. Yes, the tremors were there, as were some of the feelings of stiffness and slowness.
He went to a doctor in Portland for a second opinion. The doctor returned with baffling news: “You don’t have Parkinson’s”. While the doctor agreed that some of the symptoms were correctly called out, Matt’s brain was producing dopamine at normal levels. Matt immediately asked the doctor to find someone in the hospital he regularly disagreed with and get that doctor’s opinion. While these two doctors didn’t often see eye-to-eye, they agreed on this: no Parkinson’s. Matt asked for a third opinion and got it - “I can see why they diagnosed you with Parkinson’s,” the third doctor said. “But I agree with what you’ve heard from the two doctors today, you don’t have it”.
It is estimated that up to 30% of early onset PD diagnosis may be incorrect. Yes, Matt still has the tremors, and many other cardinal signals of the things people associate with Parkinson’s. But he doesn’t have the loss of dopamine that leads many to, for lack of better term, short-circuit over time.
For more on Matt Russell, please check out part one of this interview I did with him at ComedySportz World Championships.
written by Robert Cochrane