Life can be a Rubik's cube some days!

When you are diagnosed with PD, a condition that you have heard of, but never really understood, you read everything, starting with 2 books by my favourite canuck, Michael J. Fox. You devour articles on the internet and watch hours of videos on youtube. You decide PD is not going away, so you might just as well learn to live with it.

You are only fooling yourself. You hate the condition! You force it into the darkest recesses of your brain in an attempt to ignore it and, until your hand starts shaking, you are relatively successful. Then, wonder of all wonders, you are put on medication. In my case, amantadine first. It is an anti-viral drug which calms the tremor. Nobody is sure why it works, but it does, just not completely. You get a second drug, in my case mirapex, a dopamine agonist, a drug that fools the dopamine receptors into thinking they have received dopamine. No more tremors! Life returns to normal and while PD still intrudes into your thoughts, it is not the monster it once appeared to be and there is no need to ignore it; rather, we PWP just get on with the good life, with PD as our dark, but non-threatening, companion.

Pessimism, that form of insanity that insists things will go bad because currently all is good, has no place in this conversation.

To be optimistic (or for that matter, pessimistic), we need more facts to change/distort ......like these from parkinsons.ca.

About Parkinson’s disease

• Parkinson’s is a chronic degenerative neurological disease caused by a reduction of dopamine in the brain.
• Parkinson’s disease was first described by Britain’s Dr. James Parkinson as the shaking palsy in 1817.
• Most common symptoms are: tremor (shaking); slowness in movements, muscle stiffness and problems with balance.
• Other symptoms may also occur for some people, such as fatigue, difficulties with speech and writing, sleep disorders, loss of sense of sm ell, depression and cognitive changes.
• Parkinson’s will worsen over time; each person with Parkinson’s is unique and may experience different symptoms.
• Currently there is no cure for Parkinson’s disease.
• Most people manage their symptoms through medication.
• Other interventions such as exercise programs and speech therapy can also help.
• A small percentage of people with Parkinson’s may benefit from surgery (deep brain stimulation).
• Finding the right treatment as symptoms change over time is important and requires the expertise of specialized health-care professionals.
• A single cause for Parkinson’s has not been identified. Researchers are studying many theories such as the role of genetics and environmental exposure.

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” ― Aldous Huxley