“For better or worse in sickness and in health.”  It was 28 years ago when Ben Stefano and Cheri Wilkinson said those vows to one another.  They are words the couple did not take lightly.  In the early years of their marriage Ben faced his first major health hurdle.  He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.  Cheri says, “He was 39 years old at that point in time very, very young to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s.”  After an intensive brain surgery Ben’s Parkinson’s continued to progress.  But even through that Cheri says her husband still had an appetite for life and also for Italian food.  “Italians tend to like to eat and it’s a very social thing for them and he’s always had a huge appetite.  Even with the progression of his Parkinson’s, it was really one of the last things he loved to do that he could still do was eat. You know he couldn’t get out and play golf he couldn’t dance he couldn’t really drive he couldn’t move around easily but he could eat.”  But in recent years other major medical issues begin to affect even that aspect of Ben’s life.  Acute renal failure completely shut down his muscle function and nearly took his life.  But maybe most devastating to Ben was losing his ability to swallow.  Cheri says, “Around Labor Day there was a feeding tube inserted so he could be fed by tube because it was no longer safe for him to try and eat by mouth. He just loves to eat and he loves to eat huge quantities of food and he couldn’t do that and so it was really hard.  It was really hard.”  But Cheri and Ben were willing to put up a fight.  In next week’s Health Matters you can read about the role a local therapist played on helping Ben begin his journey of recovery.