Columns

“I would trade places with you,” my friend said. “You have Parkinson’s disease, but you also have people who love you. That matters.” I was speechless, but it’s true. We may take love for granted, but others notice it and wish they had it. I chose this column for…

Flash back with me to the mid-1980s to early ’90s, the acting heyday of our beloved Michael J. Fox and his “Back to the Future” film series. Remember how time travel in the films was made possible by retrofitting a DMC DeLorean vehicle with a flux capacitor device?…

It was a beautiful summer night in northeastern Ohio; the sun was setting, and a warm evening breeze drifted in from Lake Erie. We had spent the last few hours watching our son, Jake, play baseball. As parents, our favorite activity was watching our kids enjoying their respective hobbies. As…

It’s hard work being an optimist when you have a disease that is progressive, neurodegenerative, and — wait for it — incurable. So what do I do? I work hard at it! The work began in 2015, when I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. There is nothing like a…

Many of us experience a natural urge to relate to others to create a greater understanding of our existence. Human connection is widely seen as a vital contributing factor to health and well-being. But its importance is often overlooked or undermined, which contributes to a high incidence of loneliness…

The weather isn’t typically on your side when you live in a place like Cleveland. But for me, having lived here most of my life, I love the climate and the change of seasons. While I enjoy all four seasons for different reasons, I always look forward to the first…

My husband, Arman, and I are fortunate to have family locally who are always there for us. Most of our family members live within a 10-minute drive from our home. We also have a fantastic group of friends who are just as close to us as our family. I know…

Before I knew I had Parkinson’s disease, or even what it was, my family lost their collective mind. They insisted I was whispering and they couldn’t hear what I was saying. I still remember thinking they were all crazy. Were they gaslighting me? Why would they do that? Was…

There are a lot of hoops to jump through leading up to deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery, such as neurocognitive testing, health insurance approvals, medical team meetings, preoperative testing, and surgery scheduling, to name a few. It may seem like once all of this is done and the surgeries…

Twenty years ago, I developed frozen shoulders. Yes, plural. Over the course of a year, both of my shoulders locked up, causing me to gasp in pain when doing the simplest tasks — brushing my teeth, putting on deodorant, combing my hair. It took months of physiotherapy, and then…