We have had a busy late summer and fall and, unfortunately, I have not been a faithful blog poster. But now the holiday season is coming up, so I’m sure I can keep up with timely blog posts 🙂

To bring you up to date, in August, my brother in law Joe in Michigan failed the eye exam for his driver’s license renewal. It was determined that he had severe cataracts in both eyes and shouldn’t have been driving at all! So off we went to Michigan to get him back and forth to doctors appointments and two separate surgeries. During the break between the first eye surgery and the second, we made it out to Colorado to visit family and friends, a trip we originally had scheduled in August to coincide with grandson Charlie’s 16th birthday. We then went to Grand Rapids for the Rallying to the Challenge meeting (see my last post for details) before heading home.

In October, we journeyed to Asheville, NC and met up with the Marcia and Erwin whom we knew from Kripalu and her stepsister and husband, June and Phil. We had a great time touring the Biltmore House (America’s largest single family residence) and the River Art’s District and catching up since last March when we met up in Florida. Marcia and Erwin and another couple from Kripalu held an inaugural 5K race/walk in the Poconos in June and raised $26K for the Michael J Fox Foundation!

A week or so later we were off to San Diego to visit Ryan, Sarah and Julian. We got to see Julian play football, attended one of Sarah’s yoga classes, enjoyed several fine wines and meals and celebrated Ryan’s 40th birthday. The weather was perfect and we got in a lot of walking and caught some great sunsets over the ocean.

When we returned, I had my appointment with my Movement Disorder Specialist who was pleased with how things were going and recommended no changes to my medication regimen, in fact, he was willing to schedule the next appointment for a year away, but we decided we should continue the every 6 month’s cycle for now.

We made a short trip last weekend to Jackson, MS to watch grandson Garrett play soccer in his college league semi-final soccer tournament, held at Milsaps College. We were rained out the first night and the next day the team lost in the last 2 minutes of a well played game. It was our first (and last) time to see him play this year.

In our spare time, we have continued to build up the Tennessee Parkinson’s Disease Resources website which is now operational and we have printed cards with the website address which we are sending to support groups in Tennessee. Our hope is patients will take an extra card or two and give it to both their primary care Doctor and their neurologist so they are aware that the site exists. If it all works as we would like, the Doctor can order additional cards to have on hand for patients. The goal is to let newly diagnosed PwP know they are not alone and resources are available.

So that more or less brings us up to date and I promise I will try to meet my goal of at least two posts a month, even with the holiday’s coming up. In the meantime, don’t forget to sign up for Fox Trial Finder and Fox Insight, we have over 50,000 profiles in Trial Finder and over 3000 in Insight but we need more!! Click on the button at the top of the page or the Fox Insight icon to sign up. Thanks!

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

Rallying to the Challenge – 2015

We recently attended our second Grand Challenges in Parkinson’s research conference hosted by the Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids, MI. Again this year The Cure Parkinson’s Trust (UK) and Parkinson’s Movement(UK) sponsored the Rallying to the Challenge meeting which is conducted in conjunction with the research conference and provides an opportunity for researchers, patients and caregivers to exchange information. The theme for this year’s Rally was “Outcomes and Measures, a new look at Measuring Parkinson’s” and, as you will see, we had a very full two day agenda.

Tom Isaacs, co-founder of the Cure Parkinson’s Trust, opened our portion of the meeting saying that together we are making a seismic shift for better research, research that includes the patient and the patient’s needs. As a result of last years Rally a ‘Clinical Trials Charter’ (click here to view the charter) was developed as a cooperative effort by patients and researchers. A UK multi-center clinical trial has adopted the charter for their research which will provide a real-world test and a stepping stone to wider adoption. We were amazed to see how our efforts from just a year ago have paid off in the cooperative development of this charter by patients and researchers. (Read the post from last year here)

Tom then discussed this year’s Challenge – How do we improve outcomes and measures in clinical trials? The emphasis again this year was on improving the patient experience and introducing patient centered change to the research process. In addition we will discuss how data gathered from new technology, (wearable sensors, smartphone apps, etc) can provide new measures and improve some of the current measures.

Jon Palfreman, PwP and author of the recently released “Brain Storms – The Race to Unlock the Mysteries of Parkinson’s Disease” pointed out that the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) is primarily subjective and provides only a snapshot of the symptoms you are having when administered, usually 1 or 2 times a year during your Dr. visit. Ideally, with the advent of wearable sensors and other technology, you should be able to provide a picture of your symptoms for the entire period between Dr. visits and get real time feedback yourself.

Dr. Soania Mathur and Dr. Jon Stamford reviewed the results of this year’s survey about the symptoms of PD which have the most important impact quality of life. Interestingly, out of 492 responses to the survey not one respondent listed their top five symptoms in the same order. In fact, if you look at this slide from the final presentation, I count 28 symptoms that were brought up when answering the question “What symptoms most affect your quality of life?” This slide certainly points out that PD is truly different for each of us.

The top symptoms in both categories were put into smaller groupings and we broke out into focus groups to discuss how to improve measurement of our set of symptoms. Every focus group not only developed ideas for measuring symptoms, but also came up with tips and tricks for dealing with the issue, for example walking backwards to relax dystonia of the foot.

The next morning, we had an almost overwhelming number of presentations about new technological devices that will help measure PD symptoms when on or off medication. Presenter’s included Ken Kubota from Michael J Fox Foundation (Fox Insight Wearable Trial), Anupam Pathak Ph.D. from Google (the Lyft spoon), Bruce Hellman (uMotif Smartphone app now available in the UK and coming soon to the US and Canada) and Caroline Tanner (mPower also a smartphone app developed from the SmartPhone PD clinical test I participated in)

We also had presentations from a Davis Phinney Foundation representative about a social networking program they are developing, one from Peter Schmidt of NPF about their Parkinson’s Outcome Project (another one I am participating in) and from Eli Pollard executive director of World Parkinson’s Coalition about PowerThroughParkinson’s, a program they are bringing out with the Brian Grant Foundation that encourages PwP to commit to exercise and eat right.

Day Two also included a presentation from the renowned Parkinson’s Doctor and researcher Bas Bloem from the Netherlands about Parkinson’sNet, a program he helped develop in the Netherlands 10 years ago and which has been implemented in LA area and soon in Grand Rapids. ParkinsonNet has one goal: to guarantee the best possible care
for people suffering from Parkinson’s Disease.The program has been extremely successful in providing expert care while also reducing costs.

We then reconvened with the researchers and Tom Isaacs and other members of Parkinson’s Movement made a presentation of the results of our meeting and the need for patient involvement in the development of measures that would be the:

Right Measure – developed with the end user as a partner
Right Person – measure what is important to the person
Right Situation – don’t forgot off periods and how PD changes

In addition to meeting old friends and making new ones, we also enjoyed the exhibition of photos by Norwegian Photographer Andres Leines entitled “This is Parkinson’s”. Andres has early onset PD and has been taking pictures of other EOPD patients to point out that Parkinson’s is not just tremors and doesn’t just effect seniors. You can view some of the photos in this excellent YouTube video.

And finally, the Michael J Fox Foundation just announced that the Fox Clinical Trial Program has exceeded 50,000 registered volunteers! In case you’re not one of us, click on the big shiny button at the top of this page and sign up! Thanks.

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

Links and More Links

No not sausage links, website links! I thought I would devote this post to what’s going on in the Parkinson’s world. As you know I follow a number of other Parkinson’s blogs and here are a few items of interest from month or so, click on the link to read the entire post (will open in a new tab).

Inosine Trial Secures Phase III Funding to Study Effect on Slowing Parkinson’s. Inosine is a precursor to the antioxidant of urate. Observational studies had shown people with higher levels of urate had lower risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and, if diagnosed with PD, slower disease progression. The trial will start early next year in 60 sites.

Parkinson’s Psychosis Drug One Step Closer to FDA Approval Acadia Pharmaceuticals announced that it has submitted a New Drug Application to the FDA seeking approval for its drug Nuplazid (the compound pimavanserin) for the treatment of psychosis associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Current drugs used to treat PD psychosis have safety concerns and serious side effects for PD patients. A Phase III study showed the drug significantly reduced psychosis compared to placebo without worsening motor function. The study also showed the drug was safe and well tolerated.

How to Find the Right Dr Some excellent suggestions from the Parkinson’s Community on linking up with the right Doctor for PD treatment. My recommendation – if possible, link up with a Movement Disorder Specialist.

10 Breakthrough Therapies for Parkinson’s Disease The NPF Medical Director, Dr. Michael Okun, has published a new book covering new therapies for PD. I purchased a copy the day it was released and it is an excellent book, as was his first book, “Parkinson’s Treatment 10 Secrets to a Happier Life with Parkinson’s Disease”. He has an excellent writing style and there are chapters covering new drugs (released and in the pipeline), effects of exercise, coffee, tea and Marijuana, new DBS advances and stem cell therapies among others. I highly recommend both of his books.

How Do I Know If I’m Doing the Right Thing When I Exercise?
A post from PD Gladiators, an Atlanta based non profit devoted to combating PD with vigorous exercise. There has been a lot of emphasis on the benefits of exercise and this post discusses what exercise is optimal and how often you should exercise.

Delay the Disease, an Ohio based exercise program, is offering the Handwriting Challenge This program involves doing four simple exercises every day for 12 weeks. The exercises should take about 10 minutes to complete and are designed to test a theory they have that large muscle exercises will improve motor dexterity including micrographia (tiny handwriting). Every three weeks you write out the same sentence with the hope that your handwriting improves. Even if it doesn’t the exercises can’t hurt!

What’s It Like Having PD An excellent post by Bruce Ballard who blogs as Parking Suns. Those of us with PD will agree with these ideas to simulate PD for people who don’t have PD. I found numbers 1 and 2 an accurate description of what it feels like without medication, I’m sure you will find a few that match your symptoms too.

Coming up, Mara and I will be attending the second “Rallying to the Challenge” event organized by the Cure Parkinson’s Trust and the Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids, MI at the end of September. I wrote about the first meeting here and this years meeting will center on how to introduce new technology and additional personalized patient-centric measures into clinical trials. We are looking forward to catching up with members of our Global support group, meeting new members and enjoying the ArtPrize festival in downtown Grand Rapids.

OK, if you have followed every link in this post, you have a bunch of tab’s open and your browser is getting ready to explode so I’ll stop with a quick reminder, sign up for Fox Trial Finder (click on the button above and open one more tab).

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

Tag: Parkinson’s Disease

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Holiday!

It is a busy time of year but I wanted send along good wishes for the holiday, pass along a reminder or two and note some items of interest in the Parkinson’s community.

Reminder number one: November is National Caregivers Month. Yes the month is about over but I know that you, like me, are thankful for your care partner(s) every day of the year. Remember there are lots of resources available for care partners and one of the best, available from the Parkinson’s Foundation, is the Caring and Coping guide, written for caregivers at every stage of PD. Download load a copy at this link.

Reminder number two: Tuesday the 28th is Giving Tuesday. This is a great opportunity to make a donation to your favorite charity and, in many cases, have it matched. For example the Michael J Fox Foundation is shooting to raise $1million in 1 day with every donation matched by anonymous donors. Many other charities have similar opportunities on Tuesday, so scrape the bottom of your pocket book or wallet after Black Friday and Cyber Monday and help us find a cure for PD or the charity of your choice.

Item of interest number one: This article Neurological disorders – including Parkinson’s – are leading source of disability globally points out that PD is becoming pandemic and we must take action to find a cure. This summary is worth the few minutes it will take you to read.

Item of interest number two: The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research has launched Fox Insight — an online clinical study that empowers people with PD to partner with researchers and accelerate the development of breakthrough treatments. I have talked about Fox Insight in previous posts but, if you haven’t joined yet, now is the time, your data is needed as we work to find a cure. Click on the link above to get more information and join us.

Item of interest number three: The next World Parkinson’s Congress will be June, 2019 in Kyoto, Japan. Soaring With Hope has started a project to make origami cranes for an art installation to display at the WPC. Each crane represents a person withParkinson’s or a person impacted by Parkinson’s. They are asking each person to give their message of hope, which will be written on a crane. They have a goal of 10,000 cranes to bring to the WPC, each of them with a message of hope written on it to help raise awareness and HOPE for PD globally. Please take a minute to click on this link and add your WORDS OF HOPE, and please spread the word to get others to join in and participate. Thanks to Sharon Krischer (blogging as Twitchy Woman) for providing this information on her blog.

On this Thanksgiving day 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 occasional posts. Thank you all and Happy Thanksgiving!

November 23, 2017
A Month of Change
September has been a month of changes including:
- We moved from Tennessee to Florida
- Our house in Tennessee suffered a catastrophic flood due to a broken pipe
- Hurricane Irma also moved to Florida
- I moved this blog to a new host and a new platform and
- Summer left and Fall arrived
We arrived in Sarasota at the end of August after loading a POD and preparing the house in Tennessee for the next owners. We arrived just in time for the Thursday Pedaling class and Saturday tennis matches and were already starting to get in the groove again. Then we received a call from our realtor saying our home in Tennessee was flooded due to a broken pipe!

So we quickly made plans to return to Tennessee to assess the damage, leaving a few days before Hurricane Irma was due, but not early enough to beat the traffic on I-75 North where we spent 9+ hours to go our usual 5-6 hour trip the first day and almost the same for the second day. We found the house to be almost a complete remodel with water damage through out both floors. We are now in between the dry out and removal of damaged walls, ceilings, etc. and getting the estimate for repair/rebuild approved by the insurance company. I have to say that our insurance company (USAA) was quick to get someone out to the home to start the demolition and dry out process and to find a contractor for the rebuild, so hopefully, everything progresses as smoothly.

While we were in Tennessee, Hurricane Irma swung by Sarasota preventing us from returning until the roads were open and gasoline was available. Our rental here survived Irma with no problems and some friends that had to evacuate their home were able to ride out the storm in our unit while making sure our hurricane shutters were up and everything that might fly around was in the garage.

Since our return we are back to trying to get in to the exercise routine, pedaling twice a week, tennis at least twice a week, yoga and dance once a week and try to squeeze in a walk most days too. As I noted in the previous post, we saw a definite decline in my mobility and stiffness during the summer without enough exercise and I am glad to be able to up the level a bit.

Also, since we returned, I moved this blog to a new hosting site and a new blogging platform (WordPress). As a result I am slowly working through the site looking for broken links and missing photos in older posts, so don’t be surprised if a link doesn’t work or a post refers to a photo that doesn’t exist. I will keep at it and all should be functional soon.

In the meantime, if you subscribed to the posts by email or RSS, you may have gotten a repeat email of the previous posts which occurred when I updated the web address. I think this was a one time event and future emails will only be sent when I have a new post. If you aren’t subscribed but want to be, you can click on the subscribe by RSS link to the right and one of the options is to subscribe by email instead of RSS feed. Also, if you have the old address of tomspdblog.blogspot.com bookmarked, please update your bookmark to tomspdblog.com.

And the final change was Summer is now Fall, which in Florida means that the humidity will start dropping and the temperatures will be perfect for tennis and other outdoor events instead of falling leaves and snow. Sounds OK to me!

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
September 24, 2017
It’s Been a Busy March!

This has been a busy month of events, travel and, of course, exercise. Here are some of the highlights.

We started the month by attending the Davis Phinney Foundation Victory Summit in Punta Gorda, FL (about an hour away). This was our second time to attend one of these events and it was even better than the first time. The event included motivational talks by Davis Phinney and Tim Hague who, with his son, won the first Amazing Race in Canada. In addition our event featured presentations by local medical personnel and support groups and a presentation by Connie Carpenter-Phinney about care partner strategies. If you get a chance to attend a Victory Summit (check the website for locations and dates), I highly recommend it.

Next we took a road trip from Sarasota to Hilton Head Island, SC to visit friends. On the way there and on the way back we stopped off in Amelia Island, FL where we enjoyed hiking at Fort Clinch State Park and Big and Little Talbot Islands State Parks.

After hiking, we took the car ferry across the St John River to Mayport, FL for a great sea food lunch before heading home.

The next event was lunch with friends at Frenchy’s Outpost Bar and Grill in Dunedin Fl where Mara saw this piano and is making plans to decorate our piano we have in Tennessee.

After lunch we went to Honeymoon Island state park and hiked the trail to an eagles nest where one eagle was on the nest and the mate appeared in a tree close by, you can just make them out in this photo. (even with the red arrows!)

Our next trip was going to West Virginia University Medical School in Morgantown, WV to watch our grand daughter Breanna receive her White Coat, signifying completion of two years of medical school and her transition to clinical training which will start this summer. We enjoyed the ceremony and Morgantown, cold weather and all!

So that’s a quick look at what’s been happening this month. We continue to shoot for at least an hour of exercise per day choosing from tennis, PD in Motion Dance Class, various classes at the YMCA (yoga, tai chi, and others) and Pedaling for PD. Yet another study by Northwestern was released in the last week or so showing the benefits of at least 150 minutes per week in slowing the progression of PD. And the best exercise??? The one you will do!!!

On April 1, we will attend the National Parkinson’s Foundation Moving Day Walk in Tampa. This will be our first Moving Day Walk and we are looking forward it as we kick off Parkinson’s Awareness Month.

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

March 31, 2017

Catching Up

Rallying to the Challenge – 2015

Links and More Links

Where in the world is Tom

It’s Parkinson’s Awareness Month – 9th Edition

We Survived Hurricane Ian!

Nine Years

Other Posts

Where in the world is Tom

It’s Parkinson’s Awareness Month – 9th Edition

We Survived Hurricane Ian!

Nine Years

Tag: Parkinson’s Disease

Thanksgiving

A Month of Change

It’s Been a Busy March!