When my husband was diagnosed, we both went through a time when we were trying to figure out what this really meant. A lot of that first year involved questioning the doctors and looking for answers that weren’t available. Accepting that my husband actually had this disease was difficult for me because I had seen what it did to my father and I wasn’t seeing any of that now. I finally came to realize that is the nature of this illness, no two people with it will look the same. That was the beginning of understanding what was happening to us.

I didn’t realize that accepting his diagnosis was just the first step on this journey. So many things are changing as his symptoms progress, we have opportunities for new acceptance on an almost daily basis. He has had to accept limitations to his physical abilities thanks to his tremors and stiffness and I had to accept a shift in tasks to compensate. He had to accept that it was time to retire when his voice and tremor got in the way of him doing his job. I had to accept that it was time for me to retire when it wasn’t safe for him to be home alone all day. Then we had to accept that he shouldn’t be driving anymore, and I had to accept the role of chauffeur. Those are just a few of the more extreme examples.

With each step of this journey there have been challenges that impact how we live our lives. We wake up every morning wondering will this be a good day? And we accept whatever Parkinson’s has decided to give us. We accept, but that doesn’t mean we don’t fight back. Exercises, PT, Speech, and continuing the battle because acceptance is one thing, allowing it to slow us down, that’s just not going to happen.