Eu, meu Pai e o Parkinson

to be continued and reviewed.

I am a family member, (son) and a caregiver of a Person with Parkinson Disease (PD).  I am intimately involved with care issues and responsible for my father’s well-being.

Parkinson Disease is a disease that progresses slowly and today with the aging it is at its pick at my father’s live. He is 82 years old and has the disease for 15 years. My father symptoms today have substantially limited his physical abilities where his needs consist primarily on understanding, physical and emotional support.

 

As his symptoms progresses and stopped him from living a normal life. It hit me. And most likely, I didn't wake up one morning magically transformed into a "caregiver." Every close relationship has an element of care giving in it.  That's what family and friends do-they take care of each other. I don’t need special medical training to take care of my father in his most advanced stage in the disease. Even as the disease progresses, my role consists mostly of helping him with daily tasks life that are becoming impossible to him, and also give love which is the most important support he needs.

 

I never feel I am doing enough as a caregiver or son but no matter how skilled or empathic I am, I can not just make Parkinson Disease go away. It is progressive and incurable. As a son I wish to be a healer but to the contrary, no matter how much care I give to my father to make his life more comfortable and enjoyable, his health, as person with Parkinson, will worsen as the disease progresses.

 

I have mentioned before that understanding is one of main support he needs and I would like to explain that.

 

It seems that he gets messier; he gets less concerned with personal life and appearance, he gets irritated, as hard it sounds it is all part of the progressive and worsen of his condition.

 

The rigidity, slowness, and stiffness that come with the Disease makes it more difficult to do simple tasks as take a shower or even get out of a chair. He is easily fatigued, and his movement difficulties can make a mildly unpleasant task seem impossible.

 

I also understand that there are several explanations for the apparent remoteness or personality changes in his life. (What directly affect me as a son with the relationship with other members of the family). First of all, clinical depression shows up in 50 percent of People with Parkinson. Depression, something I have never understood, has affected my father and causes him to withdraw and seem not to be there, or not to be his old self.

My Father also has fatigue, which can make him less interested than he used to be in socializing or engaging with friends and family. (Remembering that he lives with Parkinson for 15 years). As hard as it is to take my father out the house, when I do convince him to get out or have friends or family over, he quickly reappears and re-engages. – Then again – Love is everything to a person that has Parkinson Disease.

 

More and more I see my father getting irritated and complaining. My father always loved and cherished his independence and who knows him can’t tell that he lost it all. Sometimes I receive strongly negative reactions that for a while it was hard to understand. After learning more about the disease it all became clear to me and I gently remind my father that I cannot read his mind and I explain plainly and without anger or defensiveness that I am here to help.