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At 01:56 PM 8/10/96 -0400, you wrote: Here now comes my question to other PD patients. What is >the experience with work and PD? How many years can one >expect to do a full time office job? Is it advisable to go early >on a parttime job? What about telework at home? How do >others cope with their role as father and mother when they >have PD? I'm interested to learn from other younger PD patients. > >I am in a local support group, but out of 60 members only >4 are working, the next youngest one is 15 years older than >me and his professional life is almost at it's natural end. >I think younger, working PD patients are in a special situation. >They cannot fully concentrate on their well-being and their >disease. The job and the family is a help, but also an >additional responsibility. > >Dietmar Wessel >[log in to unmask] Dietmar: My wife is also a young onset Parkinsonian - she was diagnosed about 6 years ago and she is now 47 years old. Our children are now 15 and 18 years old. It is different when you have young children. The demands on us as parents are more extreme - with driving the kids to their activities (soccer, skating, after school activities) etc. Parenting is a full time job in itself. Luckily we are able to share the chores part of the "job" since I work close to home and have flexible hours. In our case we only told the children about my wife's condition last year. They took the news quite well and have not questioned us much about it since then. I guess they don't yet see a lot of symptoms in Ruth. Ruth (my wife) is a teacher and she is still working full time. She changed her job froma classroom teacher to that of an English as a Second Language teacher which means she has fewer kids she teaches at any one time and this has helped her. Her tiredness has progressed over the years and this is probably the biggest obstacle for her continuing to teach. Yet we feel that though it is tiring and difficult to do, working full time has helped to keep her a vital, and active person. It is as if she is saying, I am OK, I am still working, Parkinsons isn't going to stop me. Exercise is also important. We both practice Tai Chi - we started almost immediately after she was disgnosed 6 years ago. Although it has been difficult to find adequate time to do it, we still feel Tai Chi has helped her to keep physically fit and flexible. For Ruth, Parkinsons has progressed slowly. She is taking a lot of anti-oxidants but we don't know that this is the reason. It sure doesn't hurt to take them. If you want to ask us anything more specific please feel free to drop us a line directly. Norm Ichiyen (P) Ruth Ichiyen