Being Scared for the Future with Parkinson's: What Comes Next?

Parkinson’s disease has been contracted by many individuals over the last several years. Outside of the central nervous system, where the disease effects the body most, not much is known about the disease or how far it can progress. Parkinson’s is not entirely deadly, yet many patients feel as if it is fatal. To elaborate, “Parkinson’s disease (PD) is not a terminal, but a chronic disease. The difference is that with a terminal disease, the patient is usually given an estimate of when they can expect to worsen or pass from the disease itself.” This definition indicates that Parkinson’s disease can last a lot longer than expected.

For instance, individuals who have developed this issue generally live with the condition until the end of their lives. Because of this, Parkinson’s patients fear their lives will end as a result of the disease. Other Parkinson’s survivors state that “everyone fights this little monster differently. Some deal with tremors as the predominant symptom. Others suffer with some degree of pain. Some are blessed with the inability to be heard or to smell (the sniffing kind of smell).”