Recently, several people have posted notes which relate the
extreme effects of Parkinson's upon the body and leave the
implied question of "when is it too much?" The vast majority of
those with PD have never suffered through the worst of this
disease, experiencing only the outter portions of the whirlpool.
Muscle stiffness, freezing, inability to turn over at night and
leg cramps are a far cry from being totally incapacitated,
wheelchair bound and unable to communicate, yet they both can be
the results of Parkinson's.
A recent study showed that mental attitude has NO effect of
the length of survival time in AIDS patients. This therory is
completely opposed to those which suggest that mental attitude
does have an effect on survival in many illnesses. I'll leave
that discussion to those more educated individuals. What I will
strongly point out is the effects of mental attitude on the
QUALITY of life.
Sick or not, we all need to come to terms with our own
death. It will happen. By facing that fact, we start to realize
that life isn't something that we just "go through", rather each
moment is a gift to be held like a treasured jewel. Beneath all
the pain of PD is the fact that we can still love, still dream,
still have moments of joy.
I don't know what's on the other side of death. I do know
what is here and, no matter how bad it gets, I want to hold on to
every precious second. In a hospital bed in Mexico, in a
wheelchair in the UK, in the outback of Austraila, people are
reaching out for a reason to live. That is the wrong direction.
Reach inward, my friends. Look beyond the pains of PD and into
the eyes of someone you love. The emotion you feel is life.
That's the reason to live.
