Hard to believe the year is almost over! It has been a busy couple of months but I hope to catch up soon and get back to a somewhat regular posting schedule. In the meantime, we hope everyone has a great holiday and we are looking forward to the new year and more progress in the search for a cure.
Happy Holidays!
Tom and Mara
Tuesday, December 1st is Giving Tuesday. Black Friday is over and Cyber Monday is almost over and Tuesday will be a great opportunity to take some (or all) of the money you saved this weekend and give back by making a donation to a Parkinson’s Disease organization or another cause of your choice. As in past years, many charitable organizations have a matching plan that will double your Giving Tuesday donation for double the benefit.
In case you need a little inspiration, I am reposting the following article “What is a Parkie? And Why are They so Expensive?“. This article was written by Alan Zimmerman vice president of the East Tennessee Parkinson’s Support Group and posted on their website, PK Hope is Alive . Alan is a strong and active advocate for Parkinson’s research and education. In addition to being Vice President of the group, he is the Assistant Tennessee State Director for the Parkinson’s Action Network (PAN) and a member of the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (PDF) People with Parkinson’s Advisory Council.
Take some time on Tuesday and support the cause of your choice, There is a lot of exciting news on the research front and our donations can make a difference! Happy Holidays!!
Just a quick post wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving from Seattle. I have much to be thankful for this year including:
But most of all I am thankful for the support of my wonderful wife, my family, my friends and all of you who take the time to read my wandering posts. I hope I have provided information of value to PwP’s and others through this blog and the Tennessee Parkinson’s Resources site that we started this year.
Thank you all and Happy Thanksgiving!
OK maybe a belated wish but a sincere one none the less, for indeed it is a New Year and for most (if not all) of us, the only double digit (2020) year we will see. So I hope your holidays were joyous and that your new year has started out right!
Here’s what’s happened in our world since my last post:
We finished the holiday season attending various events with friends including riding the Sarasota trolley to view Christmas lights, catching a Christmas concert by the ‘living’ Christmas tree at a local church, attending a Mo-Town Christmas celebration, catching a play at the Florida Studio Theater, and hosting brunch for a few friends on Christmas day. And then, we bought a new car and finished the year by watching the last sunset over the gulf for 2019 on New Years Eve. Whew!!
I started the new year out with a visit to my neurologist where I was awarded a gold star for the best patient of the day! Well at least as of 10am that morning anyway. He was happy with my lack of progression, my continued efforts to exercise daily and he was OK with my efforts to finally get my Parkinson’s drugs working with minimal off time. He even suggested cancelling my next appointment and going to once every 6 months. So, for us PwPs it was a great visit, he didn’t change or add medications, was happy with my finger tapping, getting out of the chair and walking and I got a pat on the back and a “keep doing what you are doing” . Perfect!!
We have continued to keep up with tennis most everyday and I am cycling 3 days a week now that our cycling coach is also conducting two classes a week at a second location. According to my FitBit I am averaging about 6-7 hours of exercise per week with 3 hours high intensity (cycling) and 3 – 4 hours of doubles tennis at a medium level.
Speaking of cycling, I have been working on a website about the Pedaling for Parkinson’s classes in the Sarasota area and the benefits of exercise for PwP’s. Click here to view the site SRQ Pedals to Fight PD. We will also use the website for class members and cycling coaches who want to download recorded audio of some of our rides to listen to when they are unable to attend class, traveling, etc.
If you haven’t read Simon Stott’s year end review of 2019 on his Science of Parkinson’s Blog, I highly recommend you take a look at it. Sometimes we feel like nothing new is happening in PD research but you will find that a lot of exciting research is going on. You can read it here and you can read his post on what’s on the horizon for 2020 here.
I recently signed up for PD School 2020 by Dr Laurie Mischley and had planned to write about it in this post, but this post is long enough and I think it deserves a post of it’s own. Yes that means I might have two posts in one week!! Stay tuned and see if it happens.
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
OK maybe a belated wish but a sincere one none the less, for indeed it is a New Year and for most (if not all) of us, the only double digit (2020) year we will see. So I hope your holidays were joyous and that your new year has started out right!
Here’s what’s happened in our world since my last post:
We finished the holiday season attending various events with friends including riding the Sarasota trolley to view Christmas lights, catching a Christmas concert by the ‘living’ Christmas tree at a local church, attending a Mo-Town Christmas celebration, catching a play at the Florida Studio Theater, and hosting brunch for a few friends on Christmas day. And then, we bought a new car and finished the year by watching the last sunset over the gulf for 2019 on New Years Eve. Whew!!
I started the new year out with a visit to my neurologist where I was awarded a gold star for the best patient of the day! Well at least as of 10am that morning anyway. He was happy with my lack of progression, my continued efforts to exercise daily and he was OK with my efforts to finally get my Parkinson’s drugs working with minimal off time. He even suggested cancelling my next appointment and going to once every 6 months. So, for us PwPs it was a great visit, he didn’t change or add medications, was happy with my finger tapping, getting out of the chair and walking and I got a pat on the back and a “keep doing what you are doing” . Perfect!!
We have continued to keep up with tennis most everyday and I am cycling 3 days a week now that our cycling coach is also conducting two classes a week at a second location. According to my FitBit I am averaging about 6-7 hours of exercise per week with 3 hours high intensity (cycling) and 3 – 4 hours of doubles tennis at a medium level.
Speaking of cycling, I have been working on a website about the Pedaling for Parkinson’s classes in the Sarasota area and the benefits of exercise for PwP’s. Click here to view the site SRQ Pedals to Fight PD. We will also use the website for class members and cycling coaches who want to download recorded audio of some of our rides to listen to when they are unable to attend class, traveling, etc.
If you haven’t read Simon Stott’s year end review of 2019 on his Science of Parkinson’s Blog, I highly recommend you take a look at it. Sometimes we feel like nothing new is happening in PD research but you will find that a lot of exciting research is going on. You can read it here and you can read his post on what’s on the horizon for 2020 here.
I recently signed up for PD School 2020 by Dr Laurie Mischley and had planned to write about it in this post, but this post is long enough and I think it deserves a post of it’s own. Yes that means I might have two posts in one week!! Stay tuned and see if it happens.
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
OK maybe a belated wish but a sincere one none the less, for indeed it is a New Year and for most (if not all) of us, the only double digit (2020) year we will see. So I hope your holidays were joyous and that your new year has started out right!
Here’s what’s happened in our world since my last post:
We finished the holiday season attending various events with friends including riding the Sarasota trolley to view Christmas lights, catching a Christmas concert by the ‘living’ Christmas tree at a local church, attending a Mo-Town Christmas celebration, catching a play at the Florida Studio Theater, and hosting brunch for a few friends on Christmas day. And then, we bought a new car and finished the year by watching the last sunset over the gulf for 2019 on New Years Eve. Whew!!
I started the new year out with a visit to my neurologist where I was awarded a gold star for the best patient of the day! Well at least as of 10am that morning anyway. He was happy with my lack of progression, my continued efforts to exercise daily and he was OK with my efforts to finally get my Parkinson’s drugs working with minimal off time. He even suggested cancelling my next appointment and going to once every 6 months. So, for us PwPs it was a great visit, he didn’t change or add medications, was happy with my finger tapping, getting out of the chair and walking and I got a pat on the back and a “keep doing what you are doing” . Perfect!!
We have continued to keep up with tennis most everyday and I am cycling 3 days a week now that our cycling coach is also conducting two classes a week at a second location. According to my FitBit I am averaging about 6-7 hours of exercise per week with 3 hours high intensity (cycling) and 3 – 4 hours of doubles tennis at a medium level.
Speaking of cycling, I have been working on a website about the Pedaling for Parkinson’s classes in the Sarasota area and the benefits of exercise for PwP’s. Click here to view the site SRQ Pedals to Fight PD. We will also use the website for class members and cycling coaches who want to download recorded audio of some of our rides to listen to when they are unable to attend class, traveling, etc.
If you haven’t read Simon Stott’s year end review of 2019 on his Science of Parkinson’s Blog, I highly recommend you take a look at it. Sometimes we feel like nothing new is happening in PD research but you will find that a lot of exciting research is going on. You can read it here and you can read his post on what’s on the horizon for 2020 here.
I recently signed up for PD School 2020 by Dr Laurie Mischley and had planned to write about it in this post, but this post is long enough and I think it deserves a post of it’s own. Yes that means I might have two posts in one week!! Stay tuned and see if it happens.
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius