Life teaches us lessons every day, whether we realize it or not. Each day, as we get up to face the world, there are always moments of learning—most of which are small and go unnoticed because we’re in too much of a rush to see them. They don’t come from a book, but if you pay attention, you can notice them when they happen unexpectedly. It’s that sudden realization that hits you at the moment: a small flash of clarity, and suddenly everything makes sense—the lesson of life has been taught.
For Parkinson’s patients, these lessons are not something they eagerly want to learn; nobody volunteers to get Parkinson’s disease and couldn’t care less about learning those lessons.
Over time, as the disease progresses, adjustments are made to accommodate changes in the body, and you start taking medications you never needed before. There’s fatigue, sleep problems, dizziness, tremors, balance issues, and stiffness. If you’re married or have a partner, they start learning to adapt to the new routine, help you remember when to take your medications, drive you to appointments, and ensure you don’t fall. If you have a job, you might need to make medical accommodations, change your insurance, and take FMLA leave. You join a Rocky Steady class through a local or national organization, or through your hospital’s Parkinson’s program, attending several sessions each week.
As a patient of Parkinson’s, you will experience constipation, urinary urgency, drooling, orthostatic dizziness, pain, sleep problems, apathy, cognitive changes, and you’ll have to learn to deal with these effects socially—sometimes leading to anxiety or depression and withdrawing because you don’t know how to handle the looks, comments, and awkward social moments. But what if…?
One day, if someone were to walk up to you and offer you a miracle: You can snap your fingers and your Parkinson’s disease would disappear forever—but you couldn’t get rid of it entirely and had to choose to keep something related to the disease, no matter what—what would you choose?
There are many lessons the disease teaches, whether you want to learn them or not. You have to adjust how you live and do things differently in your life. For some, it’s a new way of thinking; it changes your existence, and you are sometimes forced to learn things over as the disease progresses. However, whenever we are forced to do this in life, we gain new lessons that help us move forward.
I’d keep gyms full of people smiling and celebrating with each other’s victories as they finished another session. I’d cherish the caregivers who give their all and are celebrated for the work they do to help make someone’s life a little better, and give of themselves. I’d hold onto coaches who encourage loud voices and big steps as a room full of people doing Rock Steady Boxing.
I would promote new tools and innovation driven by necessity and routines that adapt to life. I would also foster the courage that develops through small efforts: standing up, stepping out, and trying again.
No one chooses Parkinson’s disease as their preferred choice. Still, when living must be learned again, we come together, teach each other, and stand our ground. We train the quiet muscles—patience, humor, empathy—and believe in progress that is measured by the moments. So if the disease vanished tomorrow, I’d hope that the compassion, unity, camaraderie, and the innovation Parkinson’s has helped to spark would stay behind as an example for others on how to face those life lessons and keep going.
What would you choose?
