Columns

“You don’t have to be positive all the time. It’s perfectly okay to feel sad, angry, annoyed, frustrated, scared and anxious. Having feelings doesn’t make you a ‘negative person.’ It makes you human.” –Lori Deschene As many people with Parkinson’s will attest, both Parkinson’s disease (PD) symptoms and finding…

This morning I read a Facebook post from a person who is in the early stages of being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He listed some of his symptoms and said he was awaiting lab results. He asked whether it’s common for symptoms to differ from day to day…

I felt different. With Parkinson’s disease, that can mean many different things. I may be behind on my anti-depressant and can’t decide whether to laugh or cry. Or I’m behind on my Sinemet (carbidopa-levodopa) and feel shakier than usual. There’s no sense in listing all the ways and…

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…