On another thread peggy said this:
Until we can find another Michael J. Fox, or Andy Grove - influential people willing to stand up and fight the "accepted treatment of choice" then we are forced to be tied to a medicine bottle or face the consequences - no movement or a poor quality of life.

It got me thinking about the choices we keep having to face. Recently I had to make a choice between feeling totally phased out mentally, and being mostly continent, or having a clear head, and facing a return of bladder problems. I told one friend that right now I would prefer to have a bag than not have a brain! (She thought that was extreme, but then she has not experienced crushing apathy.) It has not quite come to that, and I have not found a solution yet, but medications do not deliver all they promise, and with PD it seems as though there are always compromises to be made, you gain something and lose something else.

In my earliest days with PD it was I either took the medication, had unexpected sleep attacks, and had greatly improved mobility, or didn't and returned to being slow, incredibly stiff, but with the ability to stay awake and alert enough to do 18 hour working days. Knowing that the latter was not sustainable, I chose to take the medication, but certainly felt like I had lost a certain sense of self, a feeling of being myself, that only rarely returns. Eventually it resulted in me not being able to continue to work. But I could walk, bend, and move........

So, I am interested in the choices that others have had to make, that you have made, and the compromises, or losses, that come along with the choice you eventually decided on.. .

Peggy is right, we do need medications/treatments/help that do not push us into making a 'least worse' choice.

What are the choices you would rather not have had to make?

Lindy