Living Well with Parkinson’s:  Linda Olson’s Story

On Thursday at the World Parkinson Congress, I attended a special presentation titled “Living Well with Parkinson’s.”  Four outstanding members of the PwP community sat on the stage and talked about their inspirational lives with PD:  Brian Grant, Tim Hague, Andy McDowell, and Linda Olson.

Here is Linda Olson’s story.

Linda was recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s, but her story begins many years ago.

She was a young married American women who was seriously injured in a train collision in Germany.  The van she was riding in was struck by a train.  Both of Linda’s legs were amputated above the knee, and her right arm was amputated at the shoulder.  Her husband was also hurt, but not as seriously.  They had been married only two years.

She told her husband that if he wanted to leave her, she’d understand.  He responded that he had married her as a person, not her legs.

They decided not to focus on what they could no longer do, but on what they could.

They returned to the USA where, if my notes are accurate, her doctor said she may have been the only triple amputee in the country.  She got fitted for prosthetic legs and started rehabilitation.  Four months after she got her legs, she walked a mile.

Then she got pregnant.  Twice!  She and her husband decided that they would do all the normal family things with their kids, albeit with innovations.  (Key word here:  innovations!)

When their kids were 5 and 8 years old, they started going on camping trips, including a ten-day, 100-mile trek with canoes and kayaks.  Sometimes her husband carried her on his back with a special backpack.

What to do if you don’t need your legs on a hike?  Leave ‘em at the campsite!

She rode horses and led a “normal” … (I apologize; let’s remove the quotation marks and start again).  She rode horses and led a normal life for 30 years.  Then she found out she had Parkinson’s disease, which she described as “another amputation – but this time it was part of my brain.”

What to do?  Once again she and her husband decided to make a list of things they could still do, and not focus on what they couldn’t.  So she does Rock Steady Boxing, sings, takes her meds, and delivers thunderously awesome speeches at the World Parkinson Congress.

I found Linda amazingly upbeat, articulate, smart and responsive in the ensuing panel discussion.  Interestingly, she admitted that like many people with PD, she hid her diagnosis for a while.  It was more difficult for her to accept than losing three limbs in an accident.

However, the message written at the bottom of the kayak picture really applies to all of us with Parkinson’s disease:  Keep Innovating!

Thank you, Linda Olson!