"Take these broken wings and learn to fly..."

Parkinson’s beats you up and breaks your wings, sending you crashing into the ground. Once the dust settles you sit there, head bowed, gingerly moving your wings and nursing the shooting pain from the fractures. You have to walk on the ground while looking, with envy, at those people soaring overhead. As you grieve you start to bandage your wings with acceptance and emotional support. Depression makes your wings ache so you overhear it and apply ointment to soothe the pain.

As you start to fix the emotional fractures, your wings become set in a different shape and move in an altered, uncoordinated way. Frustrated, you give up moving your wings because they are no longer what they were… But something makes you use your wings again; you concentrate on moving one, then the other and gradually learn the new range of movement and coordination. You repeat the lessons over and over again until you are ready to attempt your first flight after your wings were broken. Flapping furiously, you begin to lift off the ground but tiredness hits you so you don’t get far. After a rest you try again and this time you fly for longer, albeit not as high as you could before but at least you are flying!

Parkinson’s disease breaks your wings and requires you to adapt and learn to fly in a new way.