http://www.theplayerstribune.com/brian-grant-lakers-parkinsons/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Aug%2011&utm_content=Aug%2011+CID_c5c6698d9af498697d1df9b4b11fa8ad&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=Joining%20the%20Fight

My father has a very similar illness, there is not much support out there for it, so it is good to see that Grant is trying to help.

SupremeCommander wrote:my grandfather has it... has had it for a couple of decades... he's a fighter... but fighting this disease is exhausting. He has aged so much in a short period of time. Last year he saw a video of himself for the first time in a while and battled depression as a result because he said something like "I look like THAT?" He was strong and independent so to have that taken from oneself is indeed a shotgun level hell Moonangie

Yes, the complete loss of self-reliance (and resulting dependency on caregivers) is one of the hardest, ego-destroying aspects of the disease. While there isn't an onset of dementia until the late stages of Parkinson's, the emotional toll that the neuromuscular aspects take on the patient and caregivers is immense. I wouldn't wish this condition on anyone. It's a living hell that culminates in a rapid decent through misery unto death by (essentially) starvation, if some other condition doesn't kill the patient first. It's bleak as it gets. That's the cold, hard truth...for now. But there's hope for new treatments just a decade or so out.