PARKINSON'S DISEASE QUOTES

quotations about Parkinson's Disease

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The main problem we have right now with Parkinson's disease is that we have no therapies that help to slow the progression of the disease definitively or reverse the damage that has already occurred within the brain. We have lots of treatments for symptoms of Parkinson's disease but nothing that actually alters the course of the disease. So gene therapy offers the potential to alter the course of the disease, and that's why we are very excited about the opportunity for gene therapy to play in the future for Parkinson's treatment.

JILL OSTREM

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With Parkinson's, it's like you're in the middle of the street and you're stuck there in cement shoes and you know a bus is coming at you, but you don't know when. You think you can hear it rumbling, but you have a lot of time to think. And so you just don't live that moment of the bus hitting you until it happens. There's all kinds of room in that space.

MICHAEL J. FOX

Tags: Michael J. Fox

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Parkinson's is my toughest fight. No, it doesn't hurt. It's hard to explain. I'm being tested to see if I'll keep praying, to see if I'll keep my faith. All great people are tested by God.

MUHAMMAD ALI

Tags: Muhammad Ali

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When I start pouring [cereal], I don't know what's going to happen. The next thing I know, I'm spraying All-Bran all over the kitchen.

MICHAEL J. FOX

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It must be borne in mind that most Parkinsonian patients remain mentally alert even as their physical condition becomes severely impaired. At the same time, they are normally extraordinarily self-conscious about their infirmities ... Tremors, speech impediment, walking difficulties, all make one not only impatient with oneself, but also often ill-at-ease with others.

FM HOWARD

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How do we wrestle with this beast? Living with an incurable disease like Parkinson's is very different from living with a terminal illness. This is a disease you're going to live with for a very long time. You really have to make peace with it.

CONNIE CARPENTER-PHINNEY

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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

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The first thing I read after being diagnosed on the internet was Parkinson's attacks the mind, body and the spirit. There is one thing that treats all three and that's hope. That's very true, you have to live with hope.

GORDON ADAIR

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There's an idea I came across a few years ago that I love. My happiness grows in direct proportion [to] my acceptance and in inverse proportion to my expectations. That's the key for me. If I can accept the truth of 'This is what I'm facing -- not what can I expect but what I am experiencing now' -- then I have all this freedom to do other things.

MICHAEL J. FOX

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When a friend or family member is diagnosed with Parkinson's, there are many battles that need to be tackled. Most importantly, support, love and understanding are imperative for the sufferer, the carer and the families.... Do a lot of encouraging and try your hardest to continue on in a normal way.

GABRIELLA ROGERS

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I couldn't sing, and I couldn't figure out why. I knew it was mechanical. I knew it had to do with the muscles, but I thought it might have also had something to do with the tick disease that I had. And it didn't occur to me to go to a neurologist. I think I've had it for seven or eight years already, because of the symptoms that I've had. Then I had a shoulder operation, so I thought that's why my hands were trembling. Parkinson's is very hard to diagnose, so when I finally went to a neurologist and he said, 'Oh, you have Parkinson's disease,' I was completely shocked. I wouldn't have suspected that in a million, billion years. No one can sing with Parkinson's disease. No matter how hard you try.

LINDA RONSTADT

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With Parkinson's, exercise is better than taking a bottle of pills. If you don't do anything you'll just stagnate.

BRIAN LAMBERT

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I'm going to be totally honest with you. Dealing with a diagnosis of Parkinson's is not easy and there is no one, single technique that will ease the pain and no magic pill that will miraculously enable you to cope with it. However ... I sincerely hope that you are able to come to terms with the diagnosis and perhaps even come to view it as a positive life-changing experience.

JOHN BAXTER

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If I'm at events and I'm clapping, my mind will say, 'Stop clapping,' but I just keep going. Tracy says, 'You're always the last one clapping.' I swear, it's not out of appreciation -- it's out of disintegration. You have to laugh at that.

MICHAEL J. FOX

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The funniest thing was how I discovered the Parkinson's. I was doing the Conan O'Brien chat show in LA and they put me up in a hotel. I was walking through the lobby and there was a crowd of youngsters. I'd seen them every day and I knew they knew me. I could see them looking over. They were Australian and this guy said, "Mr Connolly, I don't want to take up your time but I'm a doctor. I specialise in Parkinson's disease. I've been looking at the way you walk and it seems to me you have the gait of someone with early onset Parkinson's. See a doctor." The first thing I thought was, "How rude! How dare you!" I was having dinner with my son that night ... and he agreed it was rude. But I went to a doctor who put me onto a specialist and he said, "Yeah." That was the week from hell. Parkinson's and prostate cancer. Actually, it got quite funny. I was saying, "What's going to come next?" to Pamela. I'd be pretending to limp, saying, "Now my knee's gone."

BILLY CONNOLLY

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For everything this disease has taken, something with greater value has been given--sometimes just a marker that points me in a new direction that I might not otherwise have traveled. So, sure, it may be one step forward and two steps back, but after a time with Parkinson's, I've learned that what is important is making that one step count; always looking up.

MICHAEL J. FOX

Tags: Michael J. Fox

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If you suspect that you have Parkinson's, knowing for certain will be much better than uncertainty.

GLENNA WOTTON ATWOOD

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I have to ask people to do things for me that are hard. That's been the hardest thing, I think. It's harder to go out and do things. I'm not driving anymore. I'm not quite sure of my reflexes.... I don't want to go anyplace where I might get confused. I can really drive fine, but I just don't go out by myself that much anymore. I live like a person with a disability now.

LINDA RONSTADT

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Parkinson's is a remarkably individualized disease. Nearly every person's story is different. One person may experience tremor at the early stages of the disease; another person may experience tremor at a later stage of the disease or even not at all; in yet others, new symptoms may replace tremor as the disease progresses. One of the things that are true for all Parkinson's patients is that the disease progresses over time. In the beginning, a person may have only a few symptoms, but new symptoms will usually develop later on. The dopamine-producing neurons will continue to die, the amount of dopamine in the brain will continue to decline, and a person's symptoms will get worse. Depending on a wide variety of factors--including age, severity of the illness, medication, and exercise--some people may experience more intrusive, sometimes even disabling, symptoms over years or decades. Others may have a very slow progression of the symptoms and can live very productive lives without any significant impairment.

SOTIRIOS A. PARASHOS, ROSEMARY WICHMAN, & TODD MELBY

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I remember saying to a lady, it is the uncertainty I can't stand because we don't know how this disease is going to develop, or when it is going to take off. And the person I was speaking to said: 'Anybody who thinks they are living with certainty is kidding themselves. And we all live with uncertainty daily.'

GORDON ADAIR

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