Columns

Parkinson’s disease takes a lot away from you. And when you are diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s, it can steal so much of your future. I feel lucky that nearly 13 years after my diagnosis at age 36, the majority of my symptoms are well controlled. I have…

For me, having goals is very important. For instance, in the 5K race that I ran last weekend, my goal was to smile for the last 100 meters or so, because that is when they snap a photo of you. Does it matter that I came in 1,153rd? No, it…

If Parkinson’s disease had one ally in our household, it was my late uncle Brandon’s ability to avoid doing his home exercises. As I’ve mentioned before, Uncle Brandon was proud. He liked to stay busy, solve problems, and do things his way. Even as his Parkinson’s worsened, he wouldn’t…

One of the first symptoms I noticed before I was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease, besides a tremor in my pinky fingers, was difficulty managing a knife and fork. It’s one of those weird experiences that you can’t quite imagine until you experience it. And even when you do,…

Before my dad’s Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2013, my understanding of the disease was limited. I knew someone from church who had it, mainly because their tremors made it extremely visible. But I knew little about the disease’s nuances, such as who is most likely to be diagnosed with it, how…

As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, my family and I did our best to support my late uncle Brandon after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. We all pitched in, so there was almost always someone around to help him out. At least, that was the plan. One…

There are moments when a disease stops being only a medical story and becomes a public trust story. A prevention story. A question of whether the people who know enough to act will do so in time. I think Parkinson’s disease is having one of those moments now. For years,…

As you probably know by now if you’ve been reading my column, my late uncle Brandon liked to stay on the move. His career involved hands-on work, building things from the ground up, and figuring out problems on his own. That hardworking mentality wasn’t just part of his job. It…

My husband, Arman, who has early-onset Parkinson’s disease, and I don’t get to the movies very often. Instead, we prefer to wait and stream films from the comfort of home. But when the movie “Wicked” was released in theaters in November 2024, there was no way our small TV…

For 11 wonderful years, we were blessed with having a beautiful Bernese mountain dog called Kona in our lives. He’s been gone nine years, and I still think about and talk about him nearly every day. He was 97 pounds of love, joy, and fur. He was goofy — as…