My Story

   Do you remember the Energizer bunny from the TV commercials that keeps going, going and going.....? That bunny was me prior to finding out I have Parkinson's Disease on December 2013, two months after I turned 50. As expected, I can no longer keep up with this bunny and life since then, has been much slower.
   Life pretty much started throwing curveballs at me since 2010. That year, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure even though I was not overweight, worked out and ate pretty healthy on most days:) I cannot dodge this bad gene because HBP runs in my family. In 2011, I had a massive bleeding in the retina of my left eye. The retina specialist was afraid I may lose my eye sight but by the grace of God, I dodged that bullet. In 2012, my mammogram showed an abnormal lump in my breast which threw me for a loop. This was when I was on my knees, begging God to spare me from breast cancer and if He does, I promise to accept anything else thrown my way. I had lobular carcinoma in situ but NOT cancer. Phew, I dodged yet another bullet. Then in 2013, I was diagnosed with the Parkinson's Disease and sitting at my doctor's office, I remembered all too well the bargain I made with God. I was silent and I accepted this disease unexpectedly calm.
   Even though I accepted the sentence of an incurable progressive brain disease, my spirit within me knew I was not going to take it sitting down. I will fight this monster and I will not let this disease define me. That was the promise I made to my husband, Joe and my three children, Jeremy, Chris and Jackie. I refuse to believe this is the final chapter of my life. Something good has to come out of this. With that conviction in mind, my journey with PD does not mark the end, but a beginning of a very different season in my life.