Choices

Reading a post from the Parkinson’s Facebook page that I follow, there was a quote from my hero in Parkinson’s, Michael J Fox.

It goes as follows:

I often say now I don’t have any choice whether or not I have Parkinson’s, but surrounding that non-choice is a million other choices that I can make.

Michael J Fox

This is central to my own philosophy when it comes to my life with Parkinson’s. All the wishing in the world can’t make this condition go away and so the only acceptable choice for me is to find a way to have a positive life both now and in the future. 

I have had choices to make this year that could have had negative outcomes for me, or with a change in priority I have managed to turn into positive outcomes. First of all, I have had a diagnosis of a thing called ‘fatty liver’ this can be caused by a number of factors, one of which is alcohol consumption. While not a heavy drinker- honestly – I knew that to give myself the best chance of reducing the impact on my overall health and well-being I had to choose a path for the best health outcome. I chose to significantly reduce my intake of alcohol to about one drink a month and even then only if we had a special dinner out or some other social event. Even then instead of having two or more glasses of wine, I will now have one glass and that is enough. Sometimes in the month I won’t have any at all and I find that I don’t really miss it. This is a positive thing that I can control and will give me something I can change.

The other choice is in relation to my needing a knee replacement. I have been on the waitlist for a publicly funded operation but after a long period of waiting with increasing pain, received news that the wait could be up to another year. It was having a negative impact on my life. I couldn’t go walking with my husband. I couldn’t ride my bike. I barely made it through the day at work because of the pain. So, we decided to look into paying for it privately. As my Parkinson’s is in the early stages, I have no mobility issues due to Parkinson’s. My husband and I agreed that we could not allow Arthritis to rob me of my mobility probably years sooner than it needed to happen. So, we borrowed money and paid for the operation privately. The operation was four weeks ago now and I am gradually improving. There is a lot of pain and exercises – which cause more pain – but ultimately the choice to have the operation will give me back a significant amount of quality of life that I have not had for some time. It was the only choice I could have made that made sense.

So, as we come to the close of 2023 and look forward to the beginning of 2024, I will consciously look to the future with a view to challenging those things that I can change while accepting and working with those I can’t.

I have Parkinson’s and that is not going away.

But, what I will not let it rob me of is being a person who doesn’t accept what can be changed as inevitable. If I can challenge and change a situation that does not give me a good outcome for my health I will continue to do so.

I choose to look forward to 2024 with positivity, hope and a promise of good things to come.

Happy New Year to all. 

See you on the other side!