[JB]

I am definitely giggling and it reminded me of what I called my husband last night in our bickering and it included ‘that ‘a’ word’ you said above…. 🙁  Gosh as always, I felt so guilty afterwards because as someone said on the forum here, it’s not his fault he has PD….. It’s basically my fault for being so impatient with him.   it is SO frustrating when as you say, you NEED to hear what they are saying.  The only words I seem to use most every day now, at least 50 to 60 times per day is ‘sorry’, ‘can you speak up babe’, and ‘I can’t hear you’….  oh dear.
I hear you on the diligence and we have practiced once last week and so far not at all this week, but I will leave it up to him… he will tire of it before I will I feel.  It impacts every social situation as I’m sure you are aware….  :-O  I’m sure a different name would be funny to begin with, naughty….LOL.
Rock steady boxing is not here but there is similar and we went once but because he is younger and fitter it was a total waste of time.  The other people there were very elderly bless them and doing really well, but it just wasn’t for him at all.  We have since bought some gloves and pads to try doing at home ourselves to improve his balance… I do think it has merit totally.

[JB]

Wow, Marjorie….  I felt like I was reading my own thoughts with your words explaining what you feel.   Chipping away at us is how it feels for us too, but my husband in particular with the Parkinsons, I am seeing more and more it’s grab of his abilities.  His gait is a disaster and only getting worse and there are only so many times I can catch him without injuring myself and we are still in our 50’s.   20 years later things are definitely changed, he also had DBS in 2012 which was a Godsend but Sinemet is causing all sorts of cognitive and dyskinetic issues depending on whether ON or OFF.   Voice therapy we started a month ago as I can barely hear him most days… the Lee Silverman therapy is very good and its interesting how the therapy really comes down to knowing you have the ability to raise your voice but the KEY ingredient has been cognition… Remembering to speak loud, and that is a real challenge.

I agree with you that gratitude for what we have is a big thing, but also understanding how stressful it can be to the relationship, and having friends and family understand that and support us is one of our biggest challenges.  Most people just do not realise how serious PD is on a relationship.

[JB]

What a great answer.  Thank you so much for your time on this Robert.   Your answer reverberates with the way my husband is, he is young onset PD and I will show him your posting, as I think it will be very helpful to him as we are going through a lot of stress in our relationship and we are wondering where the dickens it is coming from.