My blog for the UNM Health Services site should be up soon here— perhaps in a day or two. It begins with my detststion of the term “progressive” as in “progressive disease”:
”
It is part of the proper definition of PD: Parkinson’s is a
“progressive” neurological disease. as I am a writer and work with words every
day, I know exactly what the sentence means and why it is phrased that way; it
describes the progress of the disease. It is not meant to offend.
“And I still hate the phrase. Parkinson’s is the enemy of
progress Every day, you lie in bed after waking wondering if you will have a
good day, a bad day, or be worse; you don’t expect better. When you walk
on one of the days when tremor or rigidity is stronger than usual, “progress”
becomes a measure of how far you can go, how long you can last; this driveway,
that street light. It seems just yesterday that you never measured at all…”
progress Every day, you lie in bed after waking wondering if you will have a
good day, a bad day, or be worse; you don’t expect better. When you walk
on one of the days when tremor or rigidity is stronger than usual, “progress”
becomes a measure of how far you can go, how long you can last; this driveway,
that street light. It seems just yesterday that you never measured at all…”
Read the rest at UNM later this week.
My mother was diagnosed with Parkinson disease. When we visit her I can't help but notice that her memory is failing and she is not the person that she used to be. I don't know if I really understand this disease.