Being part of a Parkinson’s support group often connects you to people at different stages in their illness. We lost a friend from our PD community this week. He was younger than my husband but they had both been diagnosed for a while. It is the third person we have lost in the past year and is always difficult. We were told that Parkinson’s Disease is not terminal but we do know that it can complicate other illnesses making my husband more susceptible, especially to respiratory issues.

When this happens, we remind ourselves of the saying “When you’ve seen one person with Parkinson’s, you’ve seen one person with Parkinson’s”. The friends we have lost were all on a similar yet very different pathway. One of them suffered greatly from dementia along with his PD, another was having extreme physical challenges. Just as I am sure that their diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease was a factor in deaths, I also know that it doesn’t mean that the same thing is coming for my husband.

We can never truly know where we are headed on this journey so all we can do is work to maintain a positive outlook. If he continues to exercise, eat well, and be conscious of controlling his symptoms, then we can hopefully keep on fighting for many more years.