Fighting Parkinson’s, and remembering my Mom on her 88th birthday 

Today would have been my Mom’s 88th birthday. She passed away 15 and 1/2 years ago. As you know, having seen her struggles and the sad ending to the life of a beautiful, kind, loving being, I was highly motivated to take a different path than the one being offered, and to solve Parkinson’s Disease. To my Mom, Lorraine, Happy Birthday! You have helped us all.

My Mom had Parkinson’s for 24 years before she passed away in 2007. Today would have been her 88th birthday. Mom, you were a wonderful wife, mother and grandmother, and a kind-hearted soul. You are missed by all.

Here is an excerpt from my Parkinson’s daily journal {October 6, 2009}:

“I talked with Sally and completely lost it and cried and cried. Some days, she must feel really miserable being with me. She held me and I felt better after we talked…Mom would have turned 75 today.”

Parkinson’s is a terrible disease for those who have it, and it is equally a terrible disease for those who love and care for those who have it. It is very difficult to stay on the path to recovery when we are riding the physical and emotional roller coaster of day-to-day living. However, we are living, and how we live is up to us. Sally helped me a lot with this understanding.

Many people believe conceptually that they got the disease when they were diagnosed. I would imagine that you were feeling something was wrong for quite some time before ending up at the Parkinson’s specialist and/or neurologist to finally get diagnosed. As I have mentioned in the past, after I recovered and the calluses disappeared from my fingertips, my fingerprint log in to my computer no longer worked. I had set the fingerprint log in 18 months prior to being diagnosed, and I have no idea how much prior in time to that I had developed the calluses.

The point I am trying to make is this: you did not get Parkinson’s the day you got diagnosed, and it is not going to go away the day after the diagnosis. The captain of the Titanic only saw the tip of the iceberg, if that, but an ice mountain had been growing for a long time beneath the surface. When Parkinson’s finally breaks to the surface, there is a mountain of layers below that needs to be dealt with to beat the disease.

You have to decide that you want to win this battle, and you have to chip away at it a piece at a time. To succeed, you need to get on the path to recovery and have faith in yourself. Remember that you have the power to heal yourself. Your Parkinson’s knows it and tries to convince you otherwise. Be strong and resist the nonsense your mind is telling you. Instead, do the soul, mind, and body recovery processes of the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery® and tell yourself, “I have the power to heal myself.”

On this, my Mom’s birthday, take a moment and draw some inspiration from her. My Mom was a special lady. She was the kind of Mom who would have traded places with any of her children when we were ill just to relieve us of our suffering.

For 24 years with Parkinson’s, she simply tried to pretend that she was not suffering even though her suffering was apparent to anybody who saw her. She did not want to feel like a burden or have anybody worrying about her. Mom, you never were a burden, and all of us loved you and had compassion for you and for your situation.

To all of you, I share the same sentiment: You are not a burden, and all of the rest of us here love you and have compassion for you and your situation. We are a world-wide, multi-cultural family filled with love and compassion for each other and for ourselves. 

You are fighting a difficult fight, so please draw some inspiration from each other and from yourself. Be inspired by yourself for the courage you are showing on this journey to recovery. You are taking the path least traveled, and having been there myself, I am inspired by each and every one of you. 

Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!

Happy life to all of you.

You are worth it!!!

All my best,

Howard