Thursday 20 June 2013

Progressive, but to where?

Parkinson’s is a chronic, progressive disease. The shadow of the prognosis towers over my future like a prison cell; it dictates that my symptoms will get worse and I will gradually lose control of my body until I am locked inside my unresponsive body.

However, predictions of the future need the future to verify them but we are stuck in the present. My future with Parkinson’s is the same as your future without Parkinson’s; namely, it is an unsettled future. Parkinson’s is progressive but so is life. We are all walking in a dark place with a torch that illuminates only a few metres ahead of us; we predict precisely because we cannot see into the distance. It just happens to be that I can anticipate more than others but such anticipation is not actual or currently part of me. I see only vague shapes in the darkness. I want these shapes to be real, even if they devastate me, because it is preferable to not knowing. But no one knows for certain where I am going with my disease. This isn’t wilful blindness on my part; it is acknowledging we are all blind when we “see” the future.

2 comments:

  1. I agree with your thinking. It's no different for us PWP than an alcoholic (my counseling job). If we project into the future, it looks overwhelming. If we are stuck on the past (woulda, shoulda, coulda), it's too easy to sit on the Pity Pot and make ourselves and others miserable. I can focus on what I'm thankful for or be bitter about what is now and what I think will be the future. We can't choose whether or not to have PD, but we CAN choose how to react to the fact and make the most of our lives and enjoy what we have now. CARPE DIEM!

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  2. Thanks for your comments Mary! I agree with you - the ability we have to choose our reaction, even within the confines of PD, is immensely powerful. Also, its important to learn to live with uncertainty about the future; we need to trust our ability to cope with what life throws our way.

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