“Listen to your body!”

On July 5, 2019 By skrischerIn Inspiration, Living Well, Parkinsons Disease, World Parkinson Congress 2019Leave a comment

We are finally getting caught up from our trip to Japan. Since returning home, Twitchy Woman has gotten a lot of press. This is very exciting!!!

Just out in Doctor’s offices is a magazine published by Health Monitor. The “Guide to Living With Parkinson’s Disease” is distributed free to doctors offices in the US. The article: “We’re doing what we love!” features me along with two other women with Parkinson’s.

Unfortunately this guide is not available on-line, only in print. If you would like to see a copy of the entire magazine, please email me at twitchywoman18@gmail.com and I will send a PDF copy to you.

Parkinson’s Life, an online magazine based in London, published “World Parkinson Congress 2019: the travels of ‘Twitchy Woman” on June 20.

Photo from WPC with friends and Parky is featured in the blog post.

Farrel, Sharon, Elpidio, Naomi, Parky and Clara in front of Soaring with Hope for PD

The same photo of Twitchy Woman with friends at the WPC also showed up this week on Speakmedia’s “Images of the Month” for June. Speakmedia is the parent company of Parkinson’s Life.

I want to thank all of you for being loyal readers. None of this would have happened with out you. Your support, comments, emails, etc., have encouraged me to continue writing Twitchy Woman over the last 4 years. Let’s keep the dialogue going.

Keeping your Parkinson’s under control when your life isn’t

On May 18, 2019June 21, 2019 By skrischerIn Living Well, Parkinsons Disease, World Parkinson Congress 20193 Comments

If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.
African Proverb

It seems that once you think everything is under control, something happens to set you back. You are feeling so good about how you are doing, that you forget that you have limits and take on too much to do. (I admit that I am way too guilty of this). Parkinson’s lies in wait until you make that misstep and will suddenly torment you and increase the severity of your symptoms, or bring you a new set of symptoms to deal with.

On the other hand, maybe life is out of control. You have been doing too much and not taking care of yourself. You moved, your child got married, you suffered a loss. You may have felt organized at first, but at some point you realized you are in over your head. You just can’t do everything the way you used to without feeling it afterwards.

You find it hard to make plans because you just don’t know how you are going to feel any given day. One day you feel great, the next night you don’t sleep and fatigue keeps you down the next day.

Finally, You miss exercise for a couple of weeks because you are sick, on vacation or you just don’t have the time. At some point you realize that your tremor has been getting slightly worse every day, or you have become much stiffer. You feel as if you are on a downward spiral. Your meds are not working as well as they should, but you really don’t want to increase the dose. You just don’t feel good, and it is difficult to explain exactly what is troubling you.

What do you do to get out of a downward spiral?

1. Learn to say “no”. Get help where you need it. At home and/or at work. Don’t take on a new project that you know will be overwhelming. It’s ok to slow down a little. I know its hard – I am guilty of overdoing it, pretty much all the time. But remember, you are living with a chronic disease that won’t go away because you are too busy to acknowledge its presence.

2. Take a deep breath – practice breathing exercises, meditation. Parkies tend to be shallow breathers. Get some more oxygen to your brain and clear up the fuzziness between your ears.

3. Get back into your exercise routine. But don’t expect miracles immediately. It took time to get to where you are, so it is going to take some more time to get back in shape and feel the benefits of exercise on your brain again.

4. Get adequate sleep. 4 hours a night is not enough. 7-8 is ideal. However, the last time I think Mr. Twitchy and I ever slept that long was probably in college. We have forgotten how to sleep at night. I have tried sleepy time tea, meditation, yoga for sleep, no iPads, playing games on iPads in the middle of the night hoping to fall asleep, weighted blankets (which do help to some extent) various forms of CBD, etc. etc. It’s ok to take a sleeping pill for a few nights to break the pattern, or at least get a decent amount of sleep for a couple of nights so that you are not a zombie all of the time. Check with your doctor about sleep medications that may be right for you.

5. Get support from your family, friends and PD friends. Let them know how you are feeling and that you need some extra help for a little while. Don’t be a martyr.

6. Check your diet. Are you eating too much protein too close to taking your meds? Has the sugar monster has taken over your diet? If you are not sure what you should be eating, a Mediterranean diet is always a good place to start. Or check with a nutritionist. Dr. Laurie Mischley has done a lot of research on Parkinson’s and diet. Go to her website for more information

And if none of these things help, know that you are not alone. There are always Parkies on-line somewhere who are not sleeping either and are happy to chat in the middle of the night and commiserate with you.

I finally met Parky friends who I had met online, and it reinforced the fact that our common bond of Parkinson’s brings us together – and that we provide unconditional support for each other.

Twitchy Woman was featured today on Parkinson’s Life, a website for Parkies in Europe and beyond. Check out my WPC Diary here.

Giving Thanks Once Again

On November 22, 2018 By skrischerIn Inspiration, Living Well3 Comments

Yes, it’s that time of year again. As we move into the holiday season, it is a good time to look back on the past year and reflect on the things that we can be thankful for. I know that for many people with Parkinson’s Disease and other chronic diseases, it is often difficult to find anything good in our lives. However, if we start by looking at the small things, we may see that there is much to be thankful for.

I saw this morning that Parkinson’s Life, from the UK, just reposted my blogpost from 3 years ago, about 10 things to be grateful for on Thanksgiving. So if they could use it again, I can. I reposted this 2 years ago with some changes. So here it is again, with a few more changes of course, because life has changed in the last 3 years.

10. Getting by on little sleep gives us much more time to spend playing games on our iPads in the middle of the night, while we are deluding ourselves into thinking that these games may actually help our brain cells regenerate. I have cut back on the games in the middle of the night, but sleep still eludes me. The latest research is showing that some of these brain games actually do help with memory.

Writing this blog is just one of my OCD behaviors.

9. We can blame our Obsessive/Compulsive behaviors (see #10) on our medications and the non-Parkies will believe us. Writing this blog is just one of my OCD behaviors. And because of this, I have begun writing letters to the editor and to others to express my opinion. And some have even been published. I have become much more vocal about many things.

8. Waking up at 5:00 am doesn’t seem so early anymore. But why am I always late to my 8:30 yoga class? (See #10. Still playing those stupid games on my iPad) Still waking up too early, but I get to walk my dog at dawn and enjoy the sunrise. And then I play those stupid games….. Still can’t seem to get to yoga on time, but we had another grandchild this year and I often talk to her mother as I am getting ready to leave. Besides, facetime with the grandchildren is much more important than being on time anywhere.

7. I can do things with my left hand now that I would not have been able to do if that damn tremor in my right hand didn’t act up when I am trying to do something like eating, writing, brushing my teeth……you fill in the blanks. Fortunately Sinimet has been very effective for me and I am right-handed again. Yeah! Another thing to be thankful for. Sinimet is still my saviour!!!

6. Living with PD has taught me to be more pro-active about my health. I keep up with the latest research and always go to my doctor with a list of questions and concerns. This is probably the most important thing that I have learned in the last few years. My internist jokes that I know more about PD than he does.

5. All of the new friends that I have made who also have PD. We can laugh and cry together about things that non-Parkies would never understand. Last January I started a group for women with PD in the Los Angeles area. As we have gotten to know each other, friendships have blossomed. We really do have a special bond because of PD. This really is a special bond. We found each other because of PD, and we are there to support each other cope with PD and other issues. More importantly, we also get to celebrate many good things together.

4. Fortunately I have a slowly progressing form of PD, which is controlled by meds. Better living through Chemistry is my mantra. And my progression continues to be very slow. And for that I am very thankful. The progression is still slow. I was diagnosed about 10 years ago, and I am very thankful and grateful that I really haven’t had to change much in my life because of Parkinson’s.

3. Laughing with PD. When all else fails, I can always blame stupid things I do on that !?@$# tremor. Enough said…..

2. Loving with PD means cherishing the life my husband and I have together and making adjustments as we need to when that @$#% Tremor gets in the way again. Our third grandchild was born in July, adding to the joy in our family. We are truly blessed. My husband, my daughters and their families give me the greatest joy. Our fourth grandchild was born this year, and I am most thankful that I can still sit on the floor and play with all of our grandchildren.

1. Living with PD has enabled me to reach out to others like you, hopefully making all of our lives just a little bit better. I thank all of you for your support over the last year and I hope that we will continue the dialogue for many years to come. Thank you! Your ongoing support of this blog has been a giant dopamine boost for me. Looking forward to sharing my thoughts with you again in the coming year.

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One last thank you: Thanks to all of you, Twitchy Woman was listed first in Everyday Health’s 10 Parkinson’s Disease Blogs to Help You Stay Fit and Positive and received recognition for the third year in a row from Feedspot, ranked #30 in their top 50 Parkinson’s blogs.

Some suggestions for a Parkie New Year

On January 1, 2018 By skrischerIn Inspiration, Living Well, Parkinsons Disease1 Comment

New Year’s Resolution: Be More Awesome than last year.

Have you made your new years resolutions? Are there things that you want to banish from your life? New things that you want to embrace? Something you have always dreamed of doing, but never thought was attainable. Should you wipe the slate clean and start over in the new year?

At yoga this morning, my yoga instructor had an interesting view about making resolutions for the new year. Look at something that has been a problem in the last year. Don’t banish it. View it as a small person to embrace. I had always looked at Parkinson’s as the Elephant in the Room, to be banished in whatever way possible. He says to look at it as a small person instead and embrace it. By looking at PD through this lens, look at the positives things about it and how you can overcome the negative – I know that is difficult – and see how you can manage your PD better.

With that in mind, knowing that Parkinson’s can always throw a wrench in the best made plans, here are some of my suggestions for 2018.

Keep on exercising as much as possible, a minimum of 5 days a week, including more strenuous exercise at least 3 of those days, As a friend from my boxing class said, because of all of this exercise, he is in the best shape, physically, that he has ever been. I agree. I am definitely stronger than I was before my diagnosis, even though I had been exercising for years. Focusing on what exercise I need to do to keep moving, I am also in the best shape I have ever been.
Try to learn something new. Yes, that small person may have been the reason that you had to stop doing something you enjoyed, so take that time and learn to play an instrument, learn a new language, take that class you never had time for before. I started taking piano lessons 4 years ago after a 50 year hiatus. It helped my hands become less stiff, and I have been having a great time. And don’t forget that we have been told many times that learning something new helps to reconnect some of the neurons in the brain, otherwise known as Neuroplasticity.
Do not identify yourself as “sick“. There has been a debate over the last few weeks whether Parkie’s are “sick“.* Many prefer to call it a chronic condition. You can give in to it and be a victim of PD, with all of the negative connotations that come with the word “disease“. Or you can choose to fight back and not let Parkinson’s win. In other words, embrace the “small person” in order to live a productive life.
Make a few resolutions that are within reach. Getting out of the house more often, visiting friends, eating better, etc. You know what you can achieve.
Resolve to be better informed about the latest developments in Parkinson’s research. There is a lot of good stuff happening and it is hard to keep on top of it. Subscribe to a few PD newsletters that you like. Too many and you will be overwhelmed. All of this research can impact you sometime in the future, so the more you stay of top of it, the more prepared you will be when you see your doctor.
Take that new information and write down a few questions for your doctor before every visit. Bring your care partner with you if possible so that they can become part of the conversation. Ask about new treatments that may be appropriate for you. And be honest about how your current treatment is working. If you are not seeing the results you had hoped for, your doctor needs to know in order to make changes in your meds, therapy, etc.
Finally, add a few resolutions that are a reach. You may not get there, or maybe, just maybe, you will surprise yourself and find yourself doing something that you always dreamed of but never thought would be possible because of Parkinson’s.

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