No one fully understands what your caregiving situation is like for you. No one. Not even other Parkinson’s caregivers; and ironically but maybe especially, not even the person you are caring for. Just as no two Parkinson’s “cases” are alike, no two caregivers, caregiving relationships, or caregiving situations are alike.

No one fully understands what your caregiving situation is like for you. No one. Not even other Parkinson’s caregivers; and ironically but maybe especially, not even the person you are caring for. Just as no two Parkinson’s “cases” are alike, no two caregivers, caregiving relationships, or caregiving situations are alike.

Eighteen years ago, when my husband was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, he forbade me to tell anyone for two years. He argued that it was his disease and therefore his story to tell at the time of his choosing. The fact that Parkinson’s Disease had happened to him was clear, but it had happened to me, too. It had happened to us.