Today is World Parkinson's Day

Today, April 11th, is World Parkinson’s Day.

?And April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month. Declared by the World Health Organization as such, the goal for the entire month is to raise awareness about Parkinson’s Disease (“PD”), including its symptoms, risk factors and eternal optimism for a cure. Parkinson’s Disease affects 1 in every 500 people in Canada.

?Since publishing “Reflections of a Daughter on End of Life Care”, I have been amazed at how many friends have reached out directly to share their own experiences of a parent or loved one with PD. The consistent thread has been ‘we didn’t understand what was happening’, ‘we didn’t put the symptoms together’. ?Just last week, while catching up with business friends over dinner, checking in on the important stuff, I asked how family had managed through the past two years. One friend shared something new to me. His family was struggling with his father’s disease progression and care. His father had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s twelve years ago.

In the spirit of promoting awareness, and as a former caregiver for a parent with PD, I am motivated to keep writing. The purpose of this entry is to share yet another snapshot from my personal journey with Mom, to raise awareness of symptoms, to promote insight into what may be going on with your own loved one and to highlight the importance of exercise.

?My first recollection of the impact PD was having on my mother in the early days following her diagnosis was when she told me she wasn’t going to choir practice. My mother loved to sing. She was a soprano in the village church choir. It took approximately two minutes to walk from the front door of our home to the church. It wasn’t the short walk that was dictating her decision, it was the fact that she couldn’t be certain she could stand for the duration of the songs. It was very upsetting for her at the mere idea of having to sit down in the middle of a song because her disease caused unpredictable instability. Losing the confidence to stand without assistance, or even to smoothly walk from the church basement up the winding stairs to the choir loft had become terrifying to her. So, my mother quit her beloved choir.

Always searching for new care strategies and ways to increase her confidence, I bought her a recumbent bike. Begrudgingly, she took to it knowing that she needed to improve her leg strength. However, what truly motivated a commitment to movement was joining an aquafit class. Never underestimate the power of community. She found a safe space to keep moving while also making new friends. This was a classic twofer as these classes were also a natural way to combat the brewing depression that can come with the progression of PD symptoms. What joy for me to witness my mother embracing an active lifestyle and exercise as medicine!?

The fact is my mother’s neurologist encouraged exercise at our very first appointment together. Regular exercise to promote muscle strength and endurance is essential in combatting disease progression. He was delighted that we had already activated the fitness strategy.

If we miss early diagnosis, we may miss the opportunity to provide lifestyle interventions to manage the symptoms. Over the years we also introduced regular physiotherapy sessions. PD should be suspected in anyone with tremor, persistent limb stiffness, slowness of movement, balance problems or gait disorders.

James Parkinson published “An Essay on the Shaking Palsy”, the first such recognition of a disease that eventually would be known by his name. April 11th is the anniversary of the birth of James Parkinson’s.

Today, April 11th, 2022 is also the sixth month anniversary of my mother’s passing.

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