Life and Death as a person with parkinson's

CNN's website reported "Janet Reno dies after a long battle with parkinson's".  Makes it sound like PD killed her, does it not?  If that was CNN's intent, they were wrong.

You die with Parkinson's disease, not from it. However, as symptoms worsen they can cause incidents that result in death. For example, in advanced cases, difficulty swallowing can cause Parkinson's patients to aspirate food into the lungs, leading to pneumonia or other pulmonary conditions. (MJF foundation)

It is a tiny detail and I might be the subject of scorn; but, it matters to me. I don't want to live with an acquired terminal disease. You know, knowing you have no chance. I can live knowing there is (for me) the slight possibility that in 15 years I won't be in great shape due to PD but I don't think so. I plan to die an ordinary death, made ordinary by keeping my mind and body well exercised during my journey.

Consider the following concerning life expectancy for PWP.

Oct. 4, 2010 -- Parkinson’s disease is not considered fatal, but people with Parkinson’s have a shorter life expectancy than the general population.

Now new research provides clues as to why some patients die sooner than others.

Researchers in Denmark closely followed the disease progression of more than 200 patients diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

They found that being diagnosed later in life, scoring poorly on movement tests, experiencing psychotic symptoms, and developing dementia were all associated with a shorter life expectancy.

And men with Parkinson’s were more likely to die early than women. Figures! Any way, it goes on:

“There was a remarkable variability in time to death, ranging from 2 to 37 years after (motor symptoms began),” the researchers write in the October issue of the journal Neurology. “Our findings suggest that early prevention of motor progression, psychotic symptoms, and dementia might be the most promising strategies to increase life expectancy in Parkinson’s disease.(WebMD”)

The study also calculated the average age of death to be 81. Contrast that with the Stats Canada report that the average life expectancy, in Canada, of men in 2002 was 77 and women 82 and by 2013 they project those averages will increase to 81.9 and 86 respectively. We PWP are not out of line on average.

Quality of life in the final years is what makes us different. The key to keeping as healthy a life as possible is exercise, as you may have noticed is of special interest to me. I'm guessing I will die in my mid 80's, an ordinary death and not from PD.

Predicting my own death - that's rather morbid. Yes it is, but the joke is on me. Think about Mother Nature's truth....... all life is a terminal disease.

I will just have to live with that.