Ancient Fights
The Saxons of the 10th century fought using what was called the shield wall as the standard defense tactic against roaming Dane and Viking armies. The Saxons learned the defense tactic from the Romans, who learned it from the Greeks.
It is said that the Spartan King Leonidas used the shield wall in 480 BC at Thermopylae against the Persians when the Persians outnumbered him twenty-fold. The idea was for soldiers to line up whereby their shields would touch and form a mobile “wall.” The shield wall might stretch for hundreds of yards and a calvary vanguard on the edges would keep attackers from flanking the defenders.
At times, the shield wall was formed in the shape of a large oval or circle and could march into battle. Soldiers jabbed with spears and short swords (the seax) against their attackers. They formed the wall several people deep, so if one person fell, another was behind him to ensure the integrity of the wall. The Viking war ax was used by attackers to hatchet down onto the top of the opponent’s shield and pull it down, thus exposing the defender behind it. It must have been a grisly and awful way to fight.
Eight hundred years later, Wellington would use the British “square” against Napoleon and the squares mauled the exposed French cavalry with gunfire and bayonets. The British square defense was the evolution of the 3,000 years old battle strategy of shield walls.
Current Fights
Now, we engage in a war wherein the attacker is Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Sometimes, our battles involve falls and balance issues, causing open fractures and bleeding head wounds. We need multiple shield walls to mount our defense. The attacker, if allowed, uses all sorts of infections and mental games in laying siege to us. However, we get time to prepare. Because PD announces its intent years in advance, by small hints, early diagnosis is possible. We get to see the illness coming long before the real siege starts.
The bad news is that PD will never withdraw. The good news is that we can defend with shield wall after shield wall, backing up on the battlements using multiple defenses. Defenses like new medications, vaccines for shingles and pneumonia risk, deep brain stimulation, an early emphasis on exercise, speech therapy, rehab therapies, and more. All are put into the wall as they develop.
I draw this analogy to 10th-century warfare because it was close combat, and we need to realize how bad a fight can be especially if we wait until the adversary is at the gate. Most people have symptoms and signs for a year before their diagnosis. We get plenty of time to prepare and yet people get this disease and stay in denial. People with Parkinson’s tend to remove themselves from society early and retreat into self-imposed isolation. It is better to turn and face the adversary early.
Shield Walls
We should also count our victories. Our goal is to survive the next battle and fall back if needed to fight another day. The adversary wants to slice you off from the pack, isolate you mentally and physically, to tell you how bad it is so that you will lay down and quit fighting. We fight a staying effort in order to buy time for research and at least a remission-inducing drug. I am in the shield wall at the midpoint between the front gate and my castle keep. I have been at this war for 15 years.
As a retired internal medicine physician and many years with the illness, I am a commander. I slowly turn and get my balance to face the next attack, fixed in determination. I will have more shield walls to fight alongside, and I know I cannot ever leave the shield wall again. I will never again get out of a chair without thinking of what is just outside the wall. I fight for the others in the wall as well as myself, hopeful, strong, and defiant.
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Photo by Samrat Khadka on Unsplash
Dan Stultz, M.D., is a retired physician who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 14 years ago at the age of 57. He practiced internal medicine in San Angelo, Texas, for 28 years and became the President/CEO of Shannon Health System. He served as President /CEO of the Texas Hospital Association from 2007 to 2014 working on medical and health policy. He served as guest faculty at the Texas A&M Medical School in Round Rock and retired in 2016. He and Alice live in Georgetown, Texas.