Coming THURSDAY, January 4th, a Special Edition of the Anchorage Parkinson's Disease Support group: Connie Carpenter Phinney on Care Partnering

We will have a special edition of the Anchorage Parkinson's Disease Support group on THURSDAY, January 4th. Our speaker will be Connie Carpenter Phinney of the Davis Phinney Parkinson's Foundation. Connie has 17 years of experience as a care partner with her husband Davis Phinney. Both Phinneys were champion cyclists ​in the 1980's with Connie winning a Gold Medal at the Los Angeles Olympic Games. According to the entry on her in Wikipedia, she "is an American retired racing cyclist and speed skater who won four medals in World Cycling Championship competitions (both road and track cycling) in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She also won the gold medal in the cycling road race at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles,^[1] as well as twelve U.S. national championships. She remains the youngest American woman to compete at the Winter Olympics.^[2]" Connie will share her experiences and tips for care partners in an hour-long ​presentation that will include time for questions. This special meeting will be at 4:30 on Thursday, January fourth, in our usual meeting place, the Anchorage Pioneer Home, 5th floor West lounge. I hope to see you there!

Peter

May Parkinason's Forecast for Anchorage and Environs

In other news there will be a *SPECIAL MEETING* of the support group for those interested in learning more about the new Levodopa gel pump. The program is described by the sponsor this way "The Duopa Patient Partner Program is an educational program developed to provide patients and their caregivers an opportunity to hear from a Duopa Nurse and a Duopa patient. The nurse will provide an educational overview of Duopa while the Patient Partner will share their personal story regarding their experiences with Duopa. A Patient Partner is a volunteer who has agreed to share their story with others affected by Advanced Parkinson’s disease."

This special meeting is scheduled for our usual meeting place on the fifth floor of the Pioneer Home at the usual time, 3:30, on an UNUSUAL DAY, Thursday, May 11. We will also have our regular meeting scheduled for May 20, because you just can't meet about Parkinson's Disease too often! I believe the agenda for that meeting will be a speaker on adaptive devices, but I have been wrong about that before :~{