parkinsons disease

Living with Parkinson’s Disease: Hope after Diagnosis

The news of being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease can be initially troubling for sufferers and their families. The first thought is probably “now what?” or “what do we do now?”

However, as time goes on, patients and their loved ones grow accustomed to dealing with this condition. With the support that is available they usually are able to carrying on and enjoy life once again in spite of this terrible news.

Life with Parkinson’s Disease

This condition affects individuals in many ways. They not be able to go to the toilet on their own. They may also be constipated more frequently, or experience additional gastrioinestinal trouble.

Their ability to perform daily tasks or to run errands may be severely affected. Therefore, they may hire a caretaker who can cook, clean, or shop for them. This hired staff member may even need to bathe the PD sufferer.

Patient diagnosis of Parkinson’s may also lose the ability to drive. This is probably one loss of independence that most causes a PD sufferer to feel very inadequate. People are usually accustomed to driving them selves around all their lives.

Advanced cases of PD are often characterized by extreme memory loss. As their ability to remember declines, they may not be able to recognize their own families. Until a full understanding of this degenerative illness is sought by relatives, children or adults tend to feel rejected.

They also might not be able to do a number of things that require use of the hands and fingers. For instance, they may not be able to play an instrument, sign greeting cards, or use a television remote. They may not be able to even call 911 in an emergency, so they require frequent supervision.

Despite increased support available to PD sufferers, they may occasionally still feel like there is no hope. As a result, some of them may experience severe bouts of depression. They also may feel helpless or are angry about their loss of independence.

Additionally, sufferers might also be very worried about their future or they may worry about how their families will be able to deal with this condition. However, when a person works through the initial negative emotions associated with learning they have PD is where the progress begins-at least emotionally.

Help Available

After being diagnosed, patients and families eventually come to the realization that they need to just make the most of the time they have it makes life easier. This often is made possible by the fact that they are comforted by support they receive.

This support that comes in many forms helps reassure them that they are not alone-whether they are the sufferer or a relative or friend of the person suffering. Knowing a variety of sources of help and information are available to them is a great source of strength for some people.

They can find the strength to carry on as they bond with people in face-to-face support group meetings. They also find a source of love and a listening ear as they join online groups. 

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Recognizing Parkinson’s Disease

If someone you know has tremors (shaking), stiffness, and difficulty maintaining balance would you suspect that they might have Parkinson’s disease? These are the key signs of Parkinson’s disease that a person may have. Other signs of Parkinson’s would be shuffling gait, muffled speech, a still facial expression that doesn’t change with emotion, small and cramped handwriting and depression.

Parkinson’s is a brain disorder that affects both men and women. Typically it affects individuals over age 65 but there are a few that have been diagnosed with the disease and are younger than 50 years of age.

A doctor can diagnose an individual with Parkinson’s disease based solely on the symptoms that they have, and a thorough physical examination. The doctor may run blood tests or X-rays to rule out other medical conditions before arriving at the diagnosis.

Many of the symptoms the individuals present with at the doctor’s office are those symptoms caused by a lack of dopamine.

Once diagnosed, providing symptom relief treats those with Parkinson’s. There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease so the most the doctor can do at present time is to make the patient’s symptoms to be as minimal as possible. New medicines are always coming on the market that promise to slow the progression of the disease but these medications have to be studied and approved.

There is no one standard treatment for Parkinson’s as everyone with the disease may have a different set of symptoms. Treatment options usually include medications, rest, exercise, physical therapy, speech therapy, and lifestyle modifications such as improving diet.

You might be able to recognize a person who has Parkinson’s disease by the physical symptoms that worsen over time or by the fact that they are always going to doctor appointments like other chronically ill people do. Typically there are more psychological issues than motor problems when the disease is in the early stage. Someone with Parkinson’s disease may go through a period of time when they are in denial, than they feel anger and finally acceptance of the disease that has claimed their body.

The unfortunate truth about the person with Parkinson’s is that they will never return to good health. They will never go back to being the vital, strong individual they were before the diagnosis.

When you are someone with a chronic and progressive disease there are many things that concern you including how your disease will interfere with work, school or your economic well being. Will you still be able to function as a spouse, partner, and parent? Will Parkinson’s change your ability to have privacy, autonomy or independence? All of these things are ways in which others recognize you as a person. Your doctor can lead you to community resources that will help you to sort all of this out. 

Tags: recognizing parkinsons disease, parkinsons