A note from my dad:

As I mentioned in my first post, my dad has been living with Parkinson's since he was 40, and now, at almost 70, he is remarkable strong and functional considering the length of time he's been dealing with it.  Parkinson's is a degenerative disease, so each day and each passing year bring about new difficulties and take away a little more independence from the sufferer.  For the last 30 years, I can attest that my father has fought tooth and nail for every inch of ground he's given up to Parkinson's.  He is nothing if not stubborn, and that has served him well in this situation, even though it sometimes makes him a pain in the butt for the rest of us!

When I started this fundraising blog, I asked my family member each to write something about their experience living with Parkinson's, so that for those of you who happily are not afflicted or aren't closely related to someone who is, you can get a picture of the life of a Parkinsonian.  My father sent me an email in response which I'll share in part here:

"There are at least 80 diseases that are worse than Parkinson's Disease (PD).  They either are more debilitating or they kill more quickly -- 2 years or less after on-set, or they are less responsive to treatment.  Among the more horrible diseases are the neurodegenerative diseaes, Huntington's, the Parkinson's "plus" diseases, Shy/Drager (which killed Johnny Cash) and Multiple Systems Atrophy (MSA), which shuts down all of the victim's autonomic functions (breathing, proper function of the peristaltic wave, basically all of the body's automatic functions which make life possible).  MSA is similar to ALS (also known as Lou Gerhig's disease), and it usually kills within 2 years after on-set (with the possible exception of Stephen Hawking, the Oxford scientist, lecturer, author, mathematician and astrophysicist, who has managed to hang on for about 40 years with ALS).  I left out Alzheimer's, which is a horrible oversight.

I would not trade PD for any of these horrible diseases, and I would not walk a mile in their shoes.  Strangely, when I have discussed this issue with persons who are suffering from any of these diseases, they have all stated that they would not trade their disease for mine. I have always assumed that merely reflects a very conservative notion that no one wants to trade the devil they know for the devil they don't know.  And, I suppose that has some basis in fact.

Make no mistake, PD is not fun.  It has either forced, or you, Alice and Ted have forced me to give up or curtail many things which I once enjoyed--scuba diving, swimming, hunting, fishing, driving, photography, and dancing.  I voluntarily gave up some of them or at least changed my participation in these activities when I realized that I was dangerous to other people or myself in continuing the activity.  That was certainly the situation with dancing and scuba diving.  In scuba, I realized that I had almost no control over my body's altitude in the water, nor any sense of whether I was ascending or descending.  Dancing became dangerous to my partners because I was falling and could have inflicted serious injuries if I had fallen on any of them---particularly the little old ladies who are fragile as eggs on their best days.

Among  the  unpleasant aspects of Parkinson's Disease and the other diseases mentioned above is the fact that they destroy a person's dignity--and that is a bitter pill to swallow."

Over the years, we have been witness to the truth of this last statement on more occasions that I'd care to remember.  Watching someone you love be broken down little by little is really miserable, and I'm sure going through it yourself is no picnic either.  Those of you who know Aubrey know that he may fall down many, many times, but he always gets up again - often with new cuts and bruises - and carries on. Pretty brave.