Columns

No one told me that breakfast bacon, ham, or sausage would make me feel awful! I had seen my off-periods worsen after a heavy meat meal, but I shrugged it off as “just a bad off-period.” Now, after being on levodopa for five years, I am positive that animal…

It is quiet behind our house this time of year. Not many people are using the pathway that stretches from one town to another. It is cold outside and it pierces my flesh, leaving me shivering as Ip stand and wait. In the silence, I can hear my…

When handed a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD), we accept it with a handful of pessimism. After all, when you’ve just been told you have a new life path and it’s Parkinson’s disease  — when you were quite happy with the old one — it’s difficult to…

Living with Parkinson’s disease is a struggle against the loss of both motor and cognitive functions. One must invest effort into an action plan that reduces the impact of the disease — a rehab plan. This effort is daily (sometimes hourly) and can be exhausting. Living with PD is…

The next letter in a series on the ABCs of Parkinson’s is “N.” This is because the disease is not just about shaking. When the topic of Parkinson’s disease comes up, it’s often met with a misunderstanding of what it really is. People immediately think of someone…

Twice a week for over a year, I have been religiously taking Rock Steady Boxing (RSB) classes for Parkinson’s disease (PD). Has RSB helped my PD? I believe that my PD symptoms would be worse or my disease would have progressed more quickly had I not taken these…

I received an email from someone concerned that they may be in the beginning stages of Parkinson’s disease (PD). I have met others who have PD, but not someone in the throes of wondering if their symptoms indeed result from Parkinson’s disease. I can’t stop thinking about them…

In my column about time management, I mentioned a nagging inner voice saying, “You did not get enough done today.” That phrase ties to an old “tape,” inner dialogue left by the voices of parents and childhood teachers that says, “You are never going to amount to anything. You are…

I used to be able to put long hours into just about anything I tackled: research, teaching, helping others, painting, writing, and gardening. But PD gobbles up time, just like the video game character Pac-Man gobbles up dots while chasing ghosts. Although I’m retired, I have less free time to…

When I was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in 2015, I asked the neurologist if there was a definitive test to confirm a PD diagnosis. I mentioned a DaTscan, but he said the test is not entirely conclusive. He also indicated that DaTscan results likely would not…