1 I liked to decorate mine with Conversation hearts that were stamped with sayings, such as “Be Mine,” “Kiss Me,” or “Say Yes.” But now, just writing this blog, it has a little bit of a creepy vibe to it. It’s kind of like a 3rd grade “50 Shades of Grey” thing going on… Seriously, who thought of these sugary innuendos for children? Once again, I am digressing….. The night before the holiday, I made memos and labeled the envelope with each classmate’s name. Although I always put more effort into creating a stupendous card for my friends or the boy I had a crush on, I never forgot to give a Vale ..read more

Parkinson’s disease is such a complicated illness. There are many layers to it, which can make it difficult to fully understand. But it can be comforting to know what the future will bring. We believe that with our knowledge of the disorder, we can have some level of control on how it will impact our bodies and mind. With the hope to know how fast our PD is progressing, some Parkies will look to the 5 stages of Parkinson’s scale, but how helpful is this method? There are few tools to collect data to help diagnose Parkinson’s disease and even less when determining its severity. The Hoehn and Ya ..read more

It’s the happiest place in the world.  It’s a place where anything is possible.  You can ride on a flying elephant, traverse through a haunted mansion, dodge a lion on the jungle cruise, or my favorite, adventure through the world of pirates… Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.  But what happens if the happiest place in the world feels unreachable to you because of a disability?  My mom has always loved Disneyland.  So, when someone mentioned going for her upcoming birthday, she was already on the computer buying plane tickets.  We left ..read more

I used to feel that all my troubles came from having been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease for almost 14 years. But there have been some events that have occurred that I can’t be so sure.  Maybe I am just getting old.  I’m smart enough to know that in the last 14 years, I didn’t just stop aging completely as my PD progressed. But when do the boundaries mesh and I can’t blame everything on Parkinson’s?  I have created a list of examples of things that keep me guessing, Is this Parkinson’s, or is it just me getting older?   Example 1: Kids acting like w ..read more

I have been thinking about how to start this blog.  I know that it has been a long time since I have written a new post. I wish I had a better explanation other than I just didn’t feel like writing about Parkinson’s.  I needed a break from it consuming my life.  A necessary mini-mental vacation you may call it. I have received multiple messages from my loyal readers making sure that I was okay because of my blog disappearance.  I wanted to thank everyone for their concerns, love, and support.  But I have to be honest, I didn’t have it in me to ..read more

With all the information coming at us from our Neurologist, online resources, and our Parkie friends, it can be challenging to keep it organized in our heads.   We might know all the things that can help us, but it’s difficult to use that knowledge and apply it to our lives. But what if you had a checklist that you could refer to, that would ensure that you were doing everything in your power to slow the progression of your Parkinson’s disease? Sounds pretty awesome, right? Well, here it is… a Parkinson’s annual checklist. Pick a month in which you could focus all your attention on ..read more

Celebrating with Nonna I was going to a party last weekend to celebrate my girlfriend Gina’s mother’s 91st birthday.  Nonna, as we call her, was full of smiles and hugs.  The party was hosted at a beautiful home in Orange County and lots of people I had yet to meet.  But before I got to socializing, I was drawn in by the smell of pizza… yes, I still have my sense of smell although my sniffer isn’t as powerful as it was prior to Parkinson’s.   Drawn in by the garlic and Mozzarella tang, I found my way to the kitchen grabbed a slice, and with no shame ..read more

Earlier this month I spent some time in Arizona visiting family.  The weather was perfect, warming up during the day and cooling off at night. Most of my family lives in the area around Phoenix.  I am the only one living in California, so when I get a chance to make the drive for the holiday, my family will try to squeeze everything into my short stay…  dinners, movies, hikes, puzzles, streaming TV, and even a trip to the zoo.   With all this fun, you can easily forget your habitual Parkinson’s complaints. For example, forgetting to take your Parkin ..read more

There’s an overabundance of scary things in this world.  I know that I look like a skilled assassin ready to attack, but the truth is… I have many things that get the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up and shout, “ruuuunnnnn!”   Like, take for example Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King’s movie“It”.  Now if that doesn’t make you crap yourself, you may not be human. Growing up, I can remember having slumber parties with my girlfriends.  Blankets and pillows tossed in the middle of the floor, peppered with junk food that would fill us with so much sugar it could ..read more

Today we are bombarded with a ton of information about Parkinson’s disease. How to live a more productive life, what type of exercise is most efficient, what should we eat, what medications are available, even what brand of laxatives work best for constipation… oh poo! We focus all our attention on how to help people with Parkinson’s disease but very rarely do you learn about what hurts Parkies. Sometimes you just have to flip the script. Seeing as I tend to do things out of the ordinary, I thought of what can hurt Parkies, and not surprisingly, there are a lot of things that harm us, but know ..read more