Some days things just won’t go smoothly. With Parkinson’s, one mistake will lead to another and another and……….You get the picture.
Sunday was one of those days.
I have been having a rough time since I broke my wrist last month. Everything seems to be getting harder. I feel wobbley when I go for a walk or try to exercise. As a result, I am not getting enough exercise and I feel it. Mentally and physically. All of which leads to, and is further compounded by, an ever-diminishing. amount of sleep.
That set up what looked like a disaster for my Sunday morning webinar. Saturday night’s sleep was particularly bad. With just a few hours of sleep, the preparation started off poorly. And went downhill from there. My very capable assistant had to cancel at the last minute due to a family emergency, I had to be my own computer tech for the Zoom program. I could not find my notes with the speaker’s bio and the questions I had for her. I failed to hit the record button and it didn’t record. My hand kept shaking while using the mouse, wich led to more errors, which led to more anxiety which led to even more errors.
And yet . . . and yet . . . . we had a wonderful meeting because we had a wonderful speaker and a wonderful and understanding audience. Samantha Elandary, the founder of the Parkinson Voice Project, discussed the benefits of the daily online practice for people with PD. She also talked about the benefits of using intent to improve your speech. Intent is a hard concept for many with PD to understand. I found this video on her website that covers most of her lecture on Sunday (greatly mitigating the failure to record the session). And our audience asked questions that were as good or better than the ones I never found. So after all of that disruption we still had a wonderful session where everybody was able to learn something important. Whew!!!
Next up on Sunday Mornings
Kicking off the new year, Professor turned Comedian, Jeremy Moody, will be joining us to talk about living with Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease.
Jeremy is a writer, storyteller, and recovering academic whose music career was cut short by Young Onset Parkinson’s. He has leaned on his experience giving lectures in courses such as Life, Death, and Meaning to tell his story with an authentic voice with humor, blunt honesty, perspective, and vulnerability. He is currently based in LA where he performs stand-up comedy (or as he calls it “fall-down comedy”).
Register here.
Thank you!
Our fundraising drive for scholarships to the World Parkinson Congress was a huge success thanks to many of you who contributed. We will be sponsoring 30 women will be attending for the first time. Yes, 30!!!
If you are planning to go to Phoenix in May for the WPC, early registration is open until January 15. Please choose Twitchy Woman as your organization. We will be planning some special activities and we hope to have a table in the resource area where we can gather and meet each other.
Once you have registered, please let me know so we can include you on our list.
Happy Holidays to all of you!
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