How Far we have come . . .
It was only seventeen years ago that our family doctor told me that my tremor might be Parkinsons and that the neurologist he referred me to told me that I likely had, at most, five – FIVE!!!! – good years left. After that, what? A walker? A wheelchair? Worse?
The year 2009 seems like another world. The internet we now use (need?) like oxygen was still fairly new and young. “Blogging” was a new (and kind of nerdy) thing. Internet research (now, Dr. Google) was not wide-spread. There were not even many well-known Parkinson’s organizations.
So as I looked back on 2025, I found myself looking back all the way to the beginning of my Parkie/PwP days. And the thought that kept coming back to me was . . . . . . THANK YOU.
- Thank you to the Movement Disorder Specialist I switched to early on who looked at Parkinson’s – and taught me to look at Parkinson’s – in an entirely different way than general neurologists. She never gave me a timeline. She gave me hope that, as tremor dominant, the disease was likely to progress very slowly. And she was right.
- Thank you to the new organizations that came along, like Rock Steady Boxing, Ping Pong for Good and so many others. You brought us out of our homes and helped us stay active with fun activities that improved our physical, mental and even spiritual health.
- Thank you to the growing – even burgeoning – Parkinson’s community. We have almost too many organizations to count, each one necessary to cover a different facet of dealing with the disease, from prevention to cure and everything in between.
- Thank you to my blogging colleagues and (another even newer word) influencers who do everything you can to share information, to make a genuine Parkinson’s community, to make the diagnosis less scary and maybe even more important, to bring it out of the ”closet” at the outset.
And also a couple of very special THANK YOUs:
- To Michael J. Fox, the original Parkinson’s advocate, who brought the disease out of the shadows and inspired the entire Parkisnon’s patient advocate movement that has made our voices heard in Washington DC and other governments around the world.
- To the World Parkinson Congress
- To all of my readers who have joined me in our collective fight against Parkinson’s and for helping grow what was mostly an accidental blog started 12 years ago into something meaningful and helpful to our community.
- To those who participate in (another almost accidental) Sunday Mornings with Twitchy Woman Zoom calls for sharing your knowledge, wisdom and experiences in a mutually supportive group.
- And perhaps most of all, to the many many, many friends I have made in my Parkinson’s life. You have added depth, breadth, meaning and outright joy to my life that I otherwise would have never known.
So as we turn the page on 2025, thank you to all of you who have made the last 17 years so much easier and better than it would otherwise have been and for making sure that the next 17 years and beyond will be better, brighter and even more hopeful for PwPs everywhere.
Happy New Year!
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