Bad pain day. Trying to keep my mind distracted. Perhaps a good show is on television. Or maybe a movie. The “off” cycle will kick in within a few hours. Pain gets worse. Last medication before bed. Time to be quiet and contemplative, but the pain intrudes upon this space.
Possibilities With Parkinson’s — Dr. C
Dr. C is the familiar pseudonym for readers who visit “Possibilities with Parkinson’s.” The love of writing has spanned his careers as a research theoretician, brain rehabilitation clinician, and college professor. Dr. C was first diagnosed with early-stage Parkinson’s disease in 2014. His interest in how Parkinson’s disease can manifest itself in other body and mind symptoms has become a focused area for his research and writing. His goal is to share current medical research on how Parkinson’s can be diagnosed in early stages, and to help other early-stage Parkinson’s patients manage their disease process in a holistic healing approach.
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You can’t walk around with a doctor in one pocket and a therapist in the other. In fact, you can’t even walk around with your hands in your pockets if you have Parkinson’s disease because you need them to prevent you from bumping into things and falling. Nobody…
Second in a series. Read part one. Pain attacks me every day, and I set aside much of my time to manage it. Chronic pain management is now a significant part of my wellness map. Pain management techniques are rooted in the conceptualization of total pain as suffering plus…
Pain and suffering are not the same. An internet search for “difference between pain and suffering” yields dozens of sites for writers and practitioners, like Ashley Pennewill and Ann Marie Gaudon, who extol the benefits to be gained from this conceptualization. The repeated message is that pain is…
I hate exercise! Both my pain and fatigue increase when I exercise. These are disabling Parkinson’s disease symptoms, and both trigger the fight-or-flight response that often manifests as “the grouch.” I have not found an easy way of exercising with Parkinson’s pain and fatigue, but I have…
A man walks into a store and asks for a map. The storekeeper responds, “We have lots of maps. Where are you going?” The man snaps, “Anywhere but here.” The shopkeeper says, “Sorry. We don’t have a map to ‘anywhere but here.’” When I was first hit with a sudden…
Wellness is the map of actions and thoughts that we use to guide us toward a higher quality of life — one with more well-being moments. Our wellness map is tailored to meet our individual needs and must be flexible and adaptable. Life throws out frequent curveballs, and human…
How do I know when I’m getting well? There’s that child’s voice yelling from the back seat of the car reminding me that time waits for no man. I would like to say: “Hey, we are almost there?” But I am not sure what “there” looks like. Perhaps getting well…
It has been rough going recently, after I acquired a “legally blind” diagnosis on top of Parkinson’s disease. It has been a month, and part of the reason I am back to column writing so soon is because of the compassionate support I received, which was freely…
In a previous column that I wrote about courage, I mentioned an eye disease I have for which I receive monthly eye injections. Yes, you read that correctly. I get a needle in my eye. Actually, I get two needles — one injection contains additional anesthetic medicine after the…
Over the many years of living with a chronic illness, I have seen many healthcare providers. Some were good and others not so good. If I walked away from a meeting with a provider feeling like I hadn’t been heard and wanting to shout, “Can you hear me…
I thought that when I retired, I would have more time, not less. How did life get so busy? There are not enough hours in the week to finish all the things I want to. If I push myself harder and longer, then I get fatigued and overwhelmed, but then…
There are quite a few articles that talk about caregivers supporting a person with a chronic illness, and that caregiver is usually the spouse. But what is it like when both people in the relationship have a chronic disease? There is a lot less information out there about…
My previous eight columns addressed the CHRONDI Creed, a plan anyone can put in place when seeking to live better with a chronic disease. The CHRONDI Creed is challenging to put in place as a way of life. It takes courage to face life honestly and to…
Identity, the “I” in CHRONDI Creed, refers to the process of finding a health-fostering identity in the face of a chronic disease that has stolen things we loved to do and caused the death of self. When everything I loved to do was taken from me,…
Death, the “D” in the CHRONDI Creed, refers more to the death of our self-identity than it does to physical death. As we endure the long battle with a chronic disease and deal with a gradual progression in symptoms, a loss of function occurs. I touch upon…
“Nature,” the “N” of the CHRONDI Creed, has always been a part of my life. One doctor told me, “Your strong history of exercise and nature has kept Parkinson’s at bay.” I was an avid hiker, cyclist, and rock collector in my youth. As I headed into…
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