Accepting my husband’s diagnosis terrifying, but the reality of it was somewhat easy at first. In those early years, not much was changing. We were both still working, he had a slight tremor but was still very capable of caring for himself. We were able to maintain the status quo, his Parkinson’s Disease was not really impacting our lives. His symptoms, all physical, were progressing slowly. As time went on, however, he began having trouble with his handwriting and his voice got quieter and muffled. Eventually it became too difficult for him to work and he retired. It was obvious that his PD was beginning to control many of the decisions we were making.  

I had to modify my life to fit the increasing demands of this diagnosis if I wanted to continue living with this man. I cut back to half-time at work and then retired early so that I could be at home with him. I started going to exercise classes with him and we joined a local support group. Our social network was changing. It was difficult realizing that we were not going to be able to do all the things we had planned on doing in retirement, but it was our post diagnosis reality and I made peace with it.  

We have given up many of our former activities, yet are still able to find fun things to do together. As it is, I try to plan only one outing or appointment per day, otherwise it becomes too much work for me as the CarePartner and overwhelming for my husband. I also have some things that I do just for me, things that allow me to escape from the responsibilities of being a CP for a little while. I try to be conscious of not exhausting either of us and still find ways to live a full and rewarding life together in spite of PD. My pathway may not be what I expected from life, yet it is what works for me today.