A great opportunity to reflect

I may be telling you about my visit to the physical therapy class off and on for some time because it had a big impact on me . What a great opportunity to share all the information I have learned and all the experiences that have made up my life with PD.  These were 2nd year students, so when I used terms such as dyskinesia and postural instability, they nodded and smiled! I told them my PD story and they listened politely, then asked some great questions. I was struck by the fact that the information I was giving them was possible or even likely to result in the dedication of a physical therapy career to helping PWPs. Or even several careers! Wow! It  was also interesting to speak to an audience who had almost no emotional reaction to my disabilities. Kind  of refreshing! I did not have to worry about explaining myself or about offending someone. Finally, I am thrilled that the professor who invited me is dedicated to getting more PTs trained in PD ways and serving the Cincinnati community. Yeah!

PD awareness

One of my goals in this blog and in my life is to increase the understanding of Parkinson's disease among those who don't live with the disease. I have read, heard, and experienced so much about PD myself that I sometime lose sight of the fact that not everyone knows what Sinemet is, or that it causes dyskinesias or that DBS is not a new procedure. Since PD is quite isolating and those with more advanced disease often don't get out in public much, it behooves those of us who are higher functioning to work assiduously toward this kind of increased awareness.

Just such an opportunity popped up for me this morning. I got an email from a physical therapy professor whom I met at the Sunflower symposium. She asked If I would come to her class next week and talk about the importance of exercise for PD and let the students try out their evaluation procedure on me. Fortunately my calendar is clear that day. I will be proud to do what I can in the awareness department. Future PTs make a great audience, too. I hope you will do what you can to promote awareness in whatever arena the opportunity arises.

Easy to forget

You may have  noticed a longer than usual lag since my last post. I promise I have been exercising. I have been diligent even though I have not been inspired. How easy it is to forget my own inspiration! When one is faced with putting forth the effort to exercise at least once, often two or three times a day for the rest of my life AND one knows that it will just keep getting harder to do, it is easy to get discouraged. Those inspirational moments are all around me, but I just don't see them. Remember Bill and Bob who came to yoga? They were both back this week. Yeah! But the woman who had PD for  years?....I don't know if I can make it. But I did treadmill, yoga, and tai chi yesterday, dance, personal trainer workout, tai chi and walk to work the day before. Tell me to keep it up.