"Where Life Meets Parkinson's." A blog for Parkinson's education, research advances, treatment strategies, and personal reflection. The goal is to provide support and resources to anyone either with Parkinson's disease or with any neurodegenerative disorder.
"There's a brief moment when you first wake up, where you have no memories. A blissful blank slate, a happy emptiness." Candace Bushnell "Celebrate our brief moment in the sun" Lawrence M. Krauss Introduction: There have been moments in the past when I felt "normal" without my motor symptoms being present. Have you had such a …
Continue reading "Friday’s Reflection: Those Brief Times Without Motor Symptoms from Parkinson’s"
"Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." Melody Beattie "Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other." Randy Pausch Gratitude: Since beginning this blog in 2015, I have mentioned gratitude numerous times and written about gratitude several …
"Our destiny is not determined by the number of times we stumble but by the number of times we rise up, dust ourselves off, and move forward." Dieter F. Uchtdorf "My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling bad or having trouble off the field, the only thing …
"Memory only becomes interesting through its struggle with forgetfulness." Adrian Forty "As you get older three things happen. The first is your memory goes, and I can't remember the other two." Norman Wisdom Précis: A short story about being forgetful. Taking our daily requirement of essential drugs is vital to our everyday function with Parkinson's. …
Continue reading "A Forgetful Friday: Journey With Parkinson’s"
"Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong." Richard Armour "No one party can fool all of the people all of the time; that's why we have two parties" Bob Hope The National Plan to End Parkinson's Act (H.R.8585) in the …
"Resilience is not what happens to you. It’s how you react to, respond to, and recover from what happens to you." Jeffrey Gitomer “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Friedrich Nietzsche "The greater the force of your compassion, the greater your resilience in confronting hardships." Dalai Lama Defining …
"You can go to heaven if you want. I'd rather stay in Bermuda." Mark Twain “Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." Roald Da Introduction: Heading to Bermuda for a much-needed break may have been crazy in the middle of another COVID-19 surge, with Delta and Omicron variants spreading like wildfire. Nonetheless, after …
Continue reading "Parkinson’s and Life Lessons Learned in Bermuda"
"I think everyone has the same question on their mind: Is the glass half-full or half-empty?" Oliver Stone "Something has to matter. Otherwise, a person's life will be miserable and empty." Tim Sandlin Introduction: When you think about Parkinson's, it is a disorder where you balance your daily life with enough dopamine or run on …
“Because you are alive, everything is possible.” Thích Nhất Hạnh “Keep swinging.” Hank Aaron Dopamine is Important: Dopamine has the chemical structure of 3,4-dihydroxyphenethylamine and is a member of the catecholamine and phenethylamine families. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, which means it delivers a message in the central nervous system. The enzyme L-DOPA decarboxylase removes carbon dioxide …
"The human brain doesn't come with an instruction manual." Bill Engvall "The great events of the world take place in the brain." Oscar Wilde Levodopa: Levodopa markedly improves motor symptoms for the majority of people with Parkinson’s. The pharmacological effectiveness of levodopa is quite good; however, it has less efficiency in controlling the non-motor symptoms. …
Continue reading "Science Tuesday: Sublingual Carbidopa/Levodopa"
Journey with Parkinson's 