Taking good health for granted
In which the author reflects on a brush with the future, and is chastened.
About eight months ago, my husband observed that my right hand was shaking when I lifted my cup to drink my morning coffee.
Truth be told, I’d noticed it too. And occasionally, when I was tired, the grip with my right hand didn’t seem to be as reliable. I had been dropping things, which I noticed because my bad back didn’t like all the bending to pick things up.
Yes, I’m a senior, and things are aching. But was this tremor something new and scary?
Years ago, I had watched as my uncle (then in his 80’s) slowly lost his quality of life due to Parkinson’s Disease. It affected him in many ways — tremor, balance, even digestion — and robbed a proudly, stubbornly independent man of his sense of agency in the world.
I had volunteered with a local Parkinson’s research charity, and watched with sympathy and sadness as a member of their Board of Directors deteriorated and ultimately lost her life to the disease. Her diagnosis was early onset, and her child was still a teenager when she died.
From the charity and the researchers it supports, I learned that this progressive disorder affects the nervous system and the many body parts controlled by nerves. I learned that symptoms start slowly, can be…
