Voice

  • Miracle

    Some months ago, I wrote a piece about what I can do.  It was written from growing despair as I realized increasing limitations as a Parkinson’s patient…the incessant, inexorable downward spiral as this beast continues to drag me into its clutches.  By focusing on the things that I could still do, I could talk myself out of the doldrums.…

  • “Reverend”

    It is a title we bestow on clergy, a form of address for those set apart as ministers or religious leaders, an identity for those who have found a servant towel with their names on it. And today, it is an official part of my identity. It has been part and parcel of my thinking…

  • Parkinson’s Disease – Living with It. Moving on…

    Friday was “Tweaking Day.” Eight weeks after optimization, I returned to my neurologist for evaluation and adjustments to this imbedded Boston-Scientific device. For the first time since this all begun, I had slept right through the night, off meds. I could finally enter the examination room feeling and acting like my normal self. The very…

  • Parkinson’s Disease – Taming the Beast

    I begin this entry with an ending:  If you ask me, “Would you go through all of this again?” I would now answer with a resounding “YES!” My sister was correct; the difficulties of the last five months are rapidly fading as I rediscover much of what is “normal.” Today, I ordered some new music…

  • Parkinson’s Disease – The Waiting Game

    Five months ago, I slammed into the Wall of Reality. The way back to myself has been difficult at times, sometimes intriguing, and occasionally funny. I had a second surgery, 3 weeks after the first, to implant a computer module in my right shoulder – it still feels alien, but I’m glad it’s there. I don’t…

  • Parkinson’s Disease – THE WALL

    I’m not really a risk-taker. I’m a dreamer. When I was a child, my Mom always said, “Kay, you have eyes bigger than your stomach!” That was her description of my propensity for taking more food than I could possibly eat at the Sunday buffet. I couldn’t help it if so many things looked so…

  • Parkinson’s Disease – The Descent

    At the end of the 2013 – 2014 school year, my eleventh as an elementary school music teacher, I was more exhausted than normal for that time of year.  I was too tired to even be excited about a new clinical trial using a new DBS device.  I had heard about it in March, and now,…

  • Parkinson’s Disease – the Invasion

    I’ve been running, and/or hiding ever since August of 2008, when I first heard the words, “I’m about 99 % certain you have Parkinson’s Disease,” aimed in my direction. There was an hour of panic, sitting in the car in the parking lot, not certain whom to call, feeling totally alone with the word “invalid”…

Blog at WordPress.com.