Pete's Parkinson's Portraits, Neil Diamond

Support Group Meeting Alert (This is NOT a Drill!)

Hey Everybody, It's a meeting alert! We will have our regularly scheduled meeting this Saturday, January 20th, 3:30 at the usual place, the Pioneer home 5th floor West lounge. We will have a parkinson's pop quiz to start the new year right, so bring your brains, or your gut or whatever you use to do your best thinking. (Magic 8-balls, ok too!)

see you soon!

Peter

New episode of the Parkinson's Pundit on REM Sleep Disorders

Do you have trouble distinguishing reality from a nightmare? The PD Pundit is here to help!

A few notes on falling

Back when I was first diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, I had a fear of falling. There were two things I especially did not relish about the idea that it would become a part of my modern lifestyle. #1 was pain, and the possibility of a fall leading to broken bones, leading to becoming bedridden, leading to bedsores, leading to infection, leading to death. #2 The fact that, back then (17 years ago!) there was nothing I could find known to improve falling. As a person with Parkinson's, you were just doomed to fall. Get used to it.

This was very frustrating, and horribly demoralizing. And we now know, not true. Yes, you will fall more if you have PD, but there are now activities that can improve your balance, stopping falls before they happen. I did a two-part infocomic on this topic, you can find the first part here, and the second here. Walk tall, don't fall. That's all.