April Is Parkinson’s Awareness Month—It Touches So Many Lives!

If you think you know Parkinson’s disease, then give these observations a look and see if your summary of the illness jibes with my array of pontifications:

Did you know...

1. Some Parkinson’s patients may be diagnosed with the illness, yet appear to have no obvious physical symptoms of the condition. Someone with Parkinson’s may have cognitive issues or non-motor issues which are difficult to detect.
2. A Parkinson’s disease diagnosis means that you have research and investigation ahead. Finding therapies that work for you will take time.
3. Reducing stress and anxiety with your Parkinson’s will calm the illness.
4. There are great resources on the web for support and valuable information that may answer your question or help you to live well with this illness.
5. Depression, apathy, and executive dysfunction can make decision making very difficult to pin down a task and complete it in a quick manner.
6. Communicating with a person with Parkinson’s can be a challenge when their voice or speech may be broken, soft, or just difficult to understand along with the masking of their face (masking is where a someone with PD has little or no facial reaction or obvious facial emotion).
7. Exaggerated movement or gyrating movement (dyskinesia) is often due to too much medicine and not due to the illness, itself.
8. Diet, sleep, stress, constipation, and amount of exercise can all play a part in how well your body reacts to the efficacy of your medicines.
9. A Parkinson’s patient is like the weather—wait 5 minutes and some symptoms may change, unpredictably.
10. The more medications that you take, the more side-effects that you need to be aware of.
11. Parkinson’s disease is a marathon—not a sprint! Learning patience can help!
12. There are so many excellent books, blogs, videos, and audiobooks to provide you answers, ideas, and support!
13. Being positive will make your illness, relationships, and almost everything you do easier!
14. People with Parkinson’s are like snowflakes, no two of us has identical symptoms, are on the same drug regimen, or find the exact same benefit from therapies or procedures.