Columns

With Parkinson’s disease, sometimes it feels as if I’ve been carrying a ball and chain around for years. Those chains have the ability to pull me down into shades of darkness if I let them. I admit, sometimes I allow access because my reserve gets low — I don’t have…

Hell on earth, that’s what it was. I was shocked by becoming legally blind in addition to worsening Parkinson’s symptoms, including what I call SEM (surges of exaggerated mood) attacks, chronic pain, and fatigue. People used to say, “You don’t look like you have Parkinson’s.” But recent…

It may take a while to get a diagnosis for Parkinson’s disease. You may see several neurologists, physicians, or movement disorder specialists before receiving correct results. It’s easier to diagnose Parkinson’s when a patient has the classic symptoms: tremors in one or both hands, changes in handwriting, or a…

Ever since I can remember I have kept a journal. People use journals to record their dreams, prayers, activities, and even the weather. In the end, our journals are thrown away, burned, or lost. Our thoughts, dreams, and prayers disappear with our last breath. So why keep a journal that…

“I’m still not feeling well. I should go to the doctor,” said Mrs. Dr. C with a pained look. I gave her a quick glance and without even a hesitation in garden shoveling, said, “OK. It’s important you attend to your health.” She asked if I would like to go…

Ashen faces stare forward, their lifeless eyes fixated on the pine box before them. Some weep, while others watch with blank expressions void of emotion. Both represent the grief that hangs heavy in the room. Death does not hold the rights to grief.  Some might say that grief…

In a classroom far, far, away, in a virtual world called Zoom, there was a teacher named Lori. She and her class of Parkinson’s disease warriors were about to embark on a journey they never could have imagined. The virtual world of Zoom Like the…

As a Parkinson’s disease patient, dismay and anxiety are all too common in my life. One day, though, these negative feelings threatened to overwhelm me.  The bike crash My late husband always said there are two types of bikers: those who have crashed and those who…

I sit at my desk in the window watching as cottonwood trees release their fluffy snowballs of spring. A car passes at a snail’s pace, yet fast enough to set this phenomenon into motion like a soft, harmless tornado dancing in circles. It reminds me how Winnie the Pooh…

“Be one with the moment.” Hogwash! I can’t be one with the darkness. Yet, I do understand the power of the darkness for shaping my behaviors. I see the darkness as pure survival and protection against possible threats. It is a hyper-focus on self-survival along with unhealed battle wounds…