Tuesday, October 27, 2015

A Diagnosis or What De'Etta Thinks about Parkinson's

One of our reasons for returning early to the Beale AFB area was to figure out what happened with the expected "medical board."

We discovered the local medical board looked at the diagnosis on the record and, by regs, Michael should face a medical board.  Rather than send the records up the chain, they decided to do a RILO (Retire in Lieu of).

In reading over the RILO report I was taken aback to see Michael's diagnosis in black and white. As I read through all the symptoms they noted, my stomach sunk. I suppose I held out hope something else was going to turn up.  They had given numbers for a variety of functions and noted things we didn't think were important - it all adds up to the fact they believe he has Parkinson's Disease.

Now we have answers. Some humorous, some sad. All of it hard, I'm sure it will get easier as we live with this reality a day at a time.  

Concrete changes - we hope the meds will help Michael feel better.  Yesterday was a bad day...stiff, stumbling, off balance and sort of "motion sick."

I am probably going to have to learn how to pull a 31 foot, squirrely trailer - Lord have MERCY.

My eyes leak at odd times - because really no one envisions their golden years with an incurable condition.  And I am not a care giver type - we have lots of jokes about THIS aspect of the whole thing. I actually look forward to seeing the work God does in me through this.

We had PLANNED to full time RV at about 70 - after missions. Our plan was to visit our kids and bless them - to be the Happy Wanderers. This is a dream we've had. Circumstances allow us to live this dream NOW-and we are determined to live fully present. We ARE learning about the implications of this disease, but we are striving for a balance of preparing for what may well come - and living NOW - making good memories NOW.  Some are concerned we aren't facing the implications - we are. In the way that is best for us. Some think we are too worried about Parkinson's and it's "not a big deal," again, we're dealing with this as we can. We know the impact it is having in OUR situation.

I imagine there will be things said on the blog we will wish hadn't been shared. I imagine there will be silent days and weeks as we work through a few issues in private. Thank you for your care of us - simply pray and we'll share what we can as we can.

This has impacted our immediate ministry plans - but God KNOWS what is going on. He is NOT surprised. There is a REASON He breathed a passion for the nation of Japan into our spirits.

He is GOOD.

All.the.time.