Garrett McAuliffe

My brother says “life is hard already, why go camping?” I have done a lot of backpacking and hiking in my life but Parkinsons at this stage makes camping pretty daunting to me. I will appreciate your enjoyment vicariously!

I thought I had Parkinson’s at the same age as I was diagnosed 62 years old. And my grandmother his mother also seems to have had Parkinson’s. I’m sure that there’s a genetic link. It’s complicated but I don’t think it’s debated anymore.

I had Parkinson’s at the same age as my father with similar symptoms. As he was, I was diagnosed at 62 years old. And my grandmother his mother also seems to have had Parkinson’s. I’m sure that there’s a genetic link. It’s complicated but I don’t think it’s debated anymore.

I have retired after 32 years at the university as a professor and 18 previous years being a teacher and a counselor. So at 72, I’ve called it quits because it is way too stressful in my 11 years since diagnosis to have any pressures like that. I too experience my increasing tremor when I have to do financial thinking or tasks that pile on t…[Read more]

Reducing stress  is a major effort of mine. After plowing through 10 years of Parkinsons while working, I am about to retire. That takes away one stress. Also, any concentration type of thinking increases my tremors and other symptoms. I often lie or sit down and do mindful meditation in between any tasks. I tend not to socialize as much as I…[Read more]

It is clearly tremors for me. My leg gets achy and jumps around when my meds are wearing off and it last for 45 minutes or so, depending on whether there is stress. I can’t do anything useful when I am in the off state. My wife asked me to prepare for a window and also to check our credit card account when I was off today and I couldn’t do the…[Read more]

Somehow I lost my first response. I have Covid as there’s another rocksteady boxing participant. I suspect I got it at the Y when I went to rocksteady boxing, ironically to help my Parkinson’s. I was short of breath and was hospitalized for three days and was on a breathing oxygen machine. What is important is that the virus has exacerbated all…[Read more]

I was diagnosed in 2010. I think my mood affects my experience of Parkinson’s but if one knows it’s a placebo then I can’t imagine it having a positive effect. I would love to be fooled into thinking something was a positive intervention, whether it’s pill or an activity. Optimism and hopefulness and acceptance all seem important. For example…[Read more]

I don’t know if it’s bizarre but I don’t know anyone else who has it. When I am off I can’t urinate. But it’s difficult to do on 80 now I have to go very badly. So I have to in the night walk up and down three flights of stairs in our house to get drafted you help me do that and then I’m able to go. I wonder if anyone else has hesitant urination.…[Read more]

Correction: that’s what I get for using vocal recognition software. In one of the first first few lines it should read, “I do find…” not “I do fine!”i

I understand that there is no vulnerability to coronavirus and its consequences based on having Parkinson’s. But I do fine, is that my Parkinson’s continues to be more dominant than the coronavirus in my body’s experience. Not that I’m not concerned and being careful. In some sense I feel solidarity with everyone since I have had to focus on heal…[Read more]

To respond to the question about apathy. I feel the app at eight but I don’t know if my colleagues or students do. But I do know that I’m not present very often but I don’t have to be in my office or in around the halls. I have to monitor my time and pace myself. I suspect they definitely know there is a with drawl on my part compare to how i use…[Read more]

You hit the nail on the head for my experience.  I find that I’m always in the “Parkinsons  Zone” even when my symptoms aren’t strong. I go into my office at the university and I feel no excitement, just a strange feeling of once having been committed to it. But I plow on despite that feeling of dislocation. It’s clearly dopamine missing. I…[Read more]

My tremor was my first indications of Parkinson’s. It was 10 years ago that my pinkie started shaking. I was leading a trip for students to Ireland. Of course constipation preceded it for about 10 years earlier.Now 10 years later it is distinctive in my right leg and my right arm. At this moment I am dictating this message because my finger will n…[Read more]

I have a specific question or comment that I’d like to hear from others about. Upon awakening, I burst into tremors right away, even if I had taking my sinemet an hour earlier and gone back to sleep. What do people do in the morning on first awakening? One thing is to worry about things as I feel the tremor start, which sometimes do.(“Oh, ano…[Read more]

I am hearing wonderful dedication as well as a reminder to do self-care. Today I have a list of about seven things I wish to accomplish but I went into an off mode good morning and couldn’t type for my work not really drive and jump around doing errands. I decided to just be slow as what it was. And wait for the meds to kick in. There’s a rea…[Read more]

Yes. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a mindfulness based approach. It emphasizes being present in the moment and being with it rather than fretting or being in the future or past. It is so easy to slip into, “how are used to be when I was without Parkinson “or “why me?”. With ACT One dozen try to dispute those thoughts but rather…[Read more]

In many ways. I was diagnosed 10 years ago and I’ve watched the progression over those 10 years. It seems like my biggest concern is about my career.As I may have mentioned before, I work as a professor, which allows me to work at home much of the time and to cut back from my long hours that I formerly worked. Due to symptoms,I am anxious about g…[Read more]