Communications with your partner

I would like to discuss communications with your Parkinson’s partner in this post.

As we all know, anxiety and worry is one of the major non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. I believe checking in with your partner regularly to see what is on their mind is very important. Be a good listener and empathizer. If you make small of their fears or anxiety, they will stop sharing. I listen and always try to ensure him that things are much better than he thinks. I also point out that he may be doing better than others with Parkinson’s disease and that Parkinson’s is not a terminal disease, thank God.

I think the sharing of communication goes both ways as well. Early in my husband’s diagnosis, we discussed that Parkinson’s is a family disease. That means that the life of the caregiver is being turned upside down just as much as the person diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Besides him sharing his fears and feelings with me, I discussed how Parkinson’s was affecting my life as well. That enabled both of us to understand what we each were feeling and discuss how we were going to deal with it. I try to check in with how he is feeling at least once a week unless I can see something is bothering him.

Looking into the future is a dangerous thing. Not one of us knows exactly what is going to happen and we can all be our worst enemy with the what ifs! So my rule (which I will probably share many of my rules throughout the posts, LOL) is DO NOT look too far into the future. Try to reinforce that with your partner as well. I don’t like to look more than a Week into the future. What are our upcoming appointments for the week, etc?

I know many of people may disagree with me but I am going to share what has worked for us as far as open communications with family and friends. My husband decided early in his diagnosis, that he would rather tell family and friends what was going on with him versus just having people stare at him and wonder. All of our family and friends have been very supportive. My husband has a great sense of humor and makes funny jokes about his illness and our family and our friends do as well. We would much rather laugh than cry.

--Denise