My husband exercises six days a week and before every session he almost always says “I’m not ready for this today.” Then he gets his equipment set up and does it anyway. I was thinking about this the other day, and it struck me that his comment not only applies to exercising but to the Parkinson’s experience as a whole. Neither of us was ready for this, yet we keep on doing it don’t we?

Having a Parkinson’s Diagnosis reminds me of an old Star Trek quote “Resistance is futile.” Parkinson’s Disease is like the Borg invaders in that it is going to assimilate my husband’s body, but just like in the movie the battle continues. PD may win in the end, but not without one heck of a fight. We have to accept that PD is going to be with us forever, but we don’t have to let it control that forever.  

Which leads to another great quote, this time not from a movie but from Michael J Fox, one of my PD heroes. Michael speaks about acceptance, not assimilation when he says “Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it.” Yes, we have to accept my husband’s diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease but we don’t ever have to stop fighting. If that means exercising six times a week, then bring it on and we’ll do our best to be ready.