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I was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease when I was just 36 years old. At that time, my life was moving quickly. By all accounts, I was headed toward the peak of my career and traveling most of the time, often internationally. I’d been married for just five years,…

Do you ever feel like screaming? On the inside, I scream fairly often. Usually, the theme is “You don’t understand!” and it’s in conjunction with some incident where it’s very clear that 1) the person doesn’t know me at all, and 2) all they can see is a shaky, slow,…

There’s a moment in every close basketball game that feels almost supernatural. The clock is ticking down, a desperate shot goes up, and in the space of a heartbeat, the whole arena goes silent. The ball is in the air. Will it go in? That thin slice of time —…

A little over 15 years ago, I started a new “job.” There was no interview, and the specific duties and time frame were unclear. Although I was probably not a very likely candidate, the job was mine, whether I liked it or not. What I knew about the job before…

I have long been fascinated by the idea of being “in flow.” Many of us have experienced a state of flow without realizing it, or even knowing what it is. Flow state was first identified and studied by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, one of the founders of positive psychology. So what…

I joined a caregiver support group a few years ago, and we meet monthly via Zoom. We are a group of spouses discussing the challenges of caregiving, life, and living with Parkinson’s disease. Our leader and founder is a lovely lady named Diana Dunetz. I was lucky enough to…

While more than 10 million people are estimated to be living with Parkinson’s disease globally, many people still don’t know much about it. My grandfather was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in his 70s, yet I knew very little about its symptoms or treatments until I was also diagnosed with it.

A friend told me recently that she was very fearful about what the future held for her with Parkinson’s disease. This got me thinking about how I feel about the future. Was I afraid? After some soul searching, I realized that, at this point at least, I’m not afraid.

I have a neurologist appointment coming up soon, which has me thinking about how lucky I am to be able to say that. I’m fortunate to have a great neurologist who treats me for Parkinson’s disease. I’m also fortunate that she is just one part of a medical…

One of the most disruptive aspects of a disease like Parkinson’s is the lack of predictability, which shows up in many ways. In the long term, there is the unpredictability of how quickly and in what ways the disease will progress. There is the shorter-term uncertainty of how…