Hi. I have recently noticed my wife veering to the right when driving and when her medication is low. She was diagnosed with PD about 5 years ago.
How are you now, 6 years on?
Hi Sande,
I have to stress that this post just represents my personal opinions. Itās a tricky topic and while everybody will agree that safety is paramount, I know people who have quite different interpretations as to what this looks like in terms of the role of medication in managing symptoms and driving.
Iāve been diagnosed for nine years - give or take - and am still confident in my ability to drive safely as long as my medication is well managed. I donāt drive if I havenāt slept, however, or if I am having a bad day and I know that sooner or later these times will increase at which point it will be time to stop. I will definitely do the right thing when it comes to it though it will be hard because it will be one more thing that I canāt do and one more major life adjustment to make, but I will do it and I will do my best to make it work because thatās life with PD.
Those of us living with Parkinsonās obviously get similar symptoms but we seem to get them in different combinations and at different times with varying rates of progression. I guess what Iām saying is that itās going to be tricky to compare one personās driving experiences with another personās based on disease duration - I know some people who gave up driving a few years after diagnosis and others who are still driving safely years down the line.
The best thing to do is what you have probably already decided to do (or have already done) and have a conversation . There is advice on various help sheets as to how to go about this but as somebody living with the condition, I find the tone of most of these patronising. Also, the same advice sheets give me advice so I have obviously read the whole thing and not that you would think so from reading some of them, but Iām still quite capable of understanding the content. I find the whole dual advice thing quite odd and quite uncomfortable. I donāt want to be talked about, I want to be involved - hmmmm, sorry, I have veered off topic onto a connected but different post.
Whatever my intentions, I realise that I may overestimate my ability to drive at some point so there may well come a day when somebody in my life feels the need to talk to me about my driving but I hope they can do it in a way befitting of our relationship and also in a way that treats me as an equal and as an adult 
.
However they arise, once I am aware of concerns I hope that I will be able to speak to a medical professional who can help me to understand the reasons as to why I am having problems (my specific issues will be individual to me and so I would like to think that I could get individual advice but weāll see) and whether medication changes or other support could help but ultimately, if I am not safe then I shouldnāt be on the road and that is just how it is.
There are some interesting articles as to why those of us with Parkinsonās can find driving difficult on various websites but they donāt tend to be linked to this one which is a shame because I like to understand what is happening to me and it would be useful to be pointed towards relevant and current research.
I will stop there. Iāve just realised that having waffled on and on I have probably only told you what you already know -sorry 
. I do hope you reach a mutually agreed resolution as to how to move forward . Jx
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Hi Jackson.
Thank you very much for your response, we have and continue to discuss situations with honesty, driving being the latest. I think the key is to understand the triggers and avoiding driving as soon as those triggers are apparent.
Of course safety is our first and utmost concern, but maintaining independence and confidence is a close second.
Thanks again.
Mark.