I am contacted annually by my husband’s long term care insurance plan to see if he still qualifies for services. I know it’s their standard procedure but it’s crazy! Each year I remind them that Parkinson’s is a chronic and progressive disease and that if they qualified my husband for services last year there shouldn’t be a question whether he qualifies for the coming year. The insurance company representative seems to think that maybe he has had a miraculous recovery? This is just one example of what I encounter when interacting with people who haven’t lived with someone who has Parkinson’s. They just don’t get it.

I wish they were right. I would love to wake up tomorrow and hear my husband in the kitchen making us breakfast. After breakfast we would go out for a drive, with him at the wheel of course, and maybe stop along the way for a hike. We’d be busy doing chores together in the afternoon before going out for a nice dinner. Then home for a quiet evening of games and wine. He wouldn’t need my help with anything and life would be so much simpler.

Unfortunately that is not the life we have been given. So, when someone questions the diagnosis or tries to recommend an alternative pathway, I simply tell them that my husband has a team of specialists and we will run their suggestions by them at his next appointment. When they ask how I manage the daily challenges, I tell them being grateful my husband is still here and in my life makes it easier to tackle any tasks his PD presents. Parkinson’s is a difficult road for both of us but there are many others that would be much worse. I tell them it’s okay, I’ve got this, secure in the knowledge that I actually do. And I forgive them for their ignorance.