Planning is key when traveling with Parkinson’s disease

This winter, my husband, Arman, and I finally took a long-awaited trip to Los Angeles to visit our children. We had planned to visit them back in August, but a Parkinson’s-related fall deterred our plans.

Since we canceled the trip in August, I’ve been anxiously awaiting this visit. My oldest daughter and her husband relocated to Southern California back in the spring, and I couldn’t wait to see their new home and meet their adopted daughter, a beautiful rescue dog named Norma. My younger daughter also relocated to Los Angeles late last summer, and I was excited to see the new place she now calls home.

My daughter and her husband graciously invited us to stay at their apartment during our visit. They have plenty of space, so we excitedly agreed to take them up on their offer. An added bonus was that our son was able to join us on the trip, coming all the way from New York City.

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If you’ve read any of my columns, you probably know that I began worrying about how to make their apartment safe for Arman just moments after I clicked “purchase” for our airline tickets. That’s just how my mind works; I hope one day to outsmart Parkinson’s disease with my superpower of worry. I will let you know when that happens.

Back in August, my husband’s recent fall was a wake-up call that we needed to make some safety modifications to our home. In our bathroom, we added grab bars in the shower and on the walls, a medical shower chair with arms, suction bars for the sink, and arms on the sides of the toilet.

Most of these new accessories were purchased from Amazon, and I assembled them myself. It took a few tries to find the items that worked best for his specific needs, but it came together nicely. I did hire a handyman to install the bathroom grab bars, as drilling into our shower tiles and drywall seemed a bit risky for a novice like me.

Because I had already made our home accessible for Arman, I was pretty much an expert on what we needed to do to prepare their apartment for our stay. A few FaceTimes and pictures of the bathroom were all I needed to get started ordering.

Thanks to Amazon, again, I placed my order to “Arman-proof” their bathroom. The suction grab bars are perfect for areas that can’t be drilled into, like hotel rooms or apartments. I was worried that they wouldn’t stay put, but they did their job perfectly and kept him safe in the shower. However, I checked to confirm that they were securely fastened before each shower. I ordered the same shower chair and arms for the toilet that we have at home.

The stairs in their home were a challenge that we addressed based on how Arman and his Parkinson’s were feeling at the moment. At times, he went up and down on his bottom, finding the upside in strengthening his arms during the maneuver. Other times, my son and son-in-law accompanied him as he walked up and down the stairs like bodyguards to a precious set of gems.

After a wonderful visit with our family, we arrived home safely with a large sigh of relief that everything had gone smoothly. After the recent accident, I was scared that traveling to new places would be a thing of the past for us. This trip reminded me not to let Parkinson’s steal these opportunities from us.

Thanks to all four of our children for making this trip a success. We couldn’t have done it without your love and support.

Note: Parkinson’s News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Parkinson’s News Today or its parent company, Bionews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to Parkinson’s disease.