Here’s a news story about a Parkie who started experiencing symptoms when she was just 13 years old – what I’m calling “Adolescent Onset Parkinson’s Disease.” She is now a doctoral student with PD doing research on PD.
Her main point in this article: The person with PD spends the most time with the person with PD – not the doctor, not the caregiver. Hence, the person with PD takes on the most responsibility to do something about it.
Quotes:
I visit my neurologist two times a year, for about 30 minutes. The rest of the year’s 8,765 hours, I spend in self-care, taking care of myself the best way I can…
This is why self-care is so important. I am the only person with the whole picture. To me, self-care is everything I do to stay as healthy as possible with a disease that is a difficult life companion. It entails everything from making sure I take my medication in the optimal way, to eating healthily, getting enough sleep, to making sure I stay physically active. I also make an effort to learn as much as I can about my condition; my neurologist says that I know more about Parkinson’s research than he does…
My strongest weapon against Parkinson’s is self observation.
This is a lesson we all need to learn.
