My husband was having what he referred to as a “low energy” day. He was tired and not interested in anything. His balance was off and nothing seemed to be working well. He didn’t feel good enough to exercise and spent most of his day on the couch napping. It was difficult for me to leave him alone, I kept checking in to make sure he was okay. I wasted a lot of my energy trying to figure out why he was feeling so exhausted. When he woke up the next day feeling okay again I realized that it was nothing we had done, his diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease was the culprit.

If it isn’t enough that this disease makes him tired, the medications he takes also play a part. He has always said that carbidopa levodopa makes him sleepy about 45 minutes after he takes it. The dosage doesn’t seem to matter, even with only one or two pills he gets drowsy when the meds should be kicking in. He can’t skip those meds until he’s feeling better, so we always get to add that to already low days.

My husband’s condition can drain me if I let it. I am finding the best solution for those bad days is to let him be. It may be difficult for me to step away, but if it is something more serious we will know soon enough. If it’s a lower energy day for him, rest is always the quickest way through. My hovering, trying to fix something that isn’t really broken only serves to make things worse. Evidently there are days when the best thing I can do as his CarePartner is to let things go and understand it’s just his PD, even though that’s really hard for me.