Song: Through Your Eyes - World Looks Different with PD Plus

We lost our mother, Marguerite, suddenly, a week ago today.  She was an amazing 84 and still going strong.

If you watch on You Tube, you know you can click the CC (closed caption symbol) in the margin at the bottom of player, and you will be able to read the lyrics I have written in this song.  -- Patient-Online

Grace as the New Year Begins

In a few days, we will enter a brand new calendar year.  There is nothing magic about putting a new 2017 calendar on the wall and there certainly isn't any certainty that we will change as we might desire to do.  However, I do believe these cultural landmarks and measuring sticks do help us to organize the spiritual and emotional sides of our lives by reminding us to consider who we are and if we are true to our purposes as we live each day.

I am reminded that God is the center of all that I do.  When I forget that, I get off course and end up tossed and turned by the churning seas of trouble.  Looking to Him, who is my creator, and He who leads me in the direction I take and how I respond to the good things in my life and the difficulties, as well.

Look back over your life and consider the big picture -- hasn't God been there all the while, opening doors, bringing comfort, guiding and directing you and bolstering your courage when you can't see how to go on?  I can't help but rejoice at the end of this year for the many ways God touches our lives and His graciousness toward me and my loved ones-- family and friends!

I thank God above for our sons, our daughters in law, our granddaughters, our parents-- all of which are living-- and our brothers and sisters in our nuclear families.  So many blessings in our church, our health care, our doctors, our Pastors, our many friends and all of the neighbors and community we are blessed to come in contact with!  God has brought us a new Movement Disorder Specialist, a wonderful Primary Care Doctor and a very dedicated new Neurologist at our clinic.  Our Neurosurgeon did such a great job on my surgery to implant my new DBS device in my chest.  The healing has been so smooth!

I think over my life and the decision I made to respond to His call and the guidance I received in  my early years in Lakewood, CA as a high schooler-Christian from my Pastor, who led our youth group (and me) in the ways of Jesus. He also taught me so many practical things about life-- camping, fishing, tennis, social justice and walking with God in Christ.

Yesterday, we received a call from this very high school Pastor (who was the Associate Minister of our church) whom I haven't seen in 40 years!  He and his wife, who is also my friend, are coming to visit us for coffee next week. We are so looking forward to seeing them. We will have the chance to thank them for the influence their lives had on my life, and indirectly, on those of my children.

God has been good.  He has been faithful. Not everything goes as expected, but He is with us, holding us through it all.

In II Corinthians 7:10, Paul writes:

"Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret..."

I know that we suffer but not in proportion to how Christ has suffered on our behalf.  Through it all, we can say, "To God Be the Glory, for the things He has done!  All that I am and ever hope to be: I owe it all to thee."  -- Andre Crouch  

Below is a video of this very song that I recorded in approximately 2010, when my hands and voice weren't as affected by Parkinsonism-Plus.

 

 Happy New Year, my friends! Thanks for your much support and prayers.  -- Dan

"My Degeneration" a Book by Parkinson's Patient & Professional Cartoonist

I was given a book, My Degeneration: A Journey Through Parkinson's, and I have found it inspiring. The author is Peter Dunlap-Shohl, a Parkinson's patient who was diagnosed in his early 40's while in the midst of a successful career.  Mr. Dunlap-Shohl was an editorial cartoonist for a major newspaper in Anchorage
Alaska. He is a tremendous artist and writer and this book is exceptional.  Allow me to explain.

He uses tongue-in-cheek humor, along with amusing satire to attract the reader.  The cartoon drawings reflect his personality and the angst that comes from loosing so many aspects of health that slowly box in the Parkinson's Patient, reducing their opportunities and the freedom to live as one wishes.

No one has found a better format or taken the time and careful employment of talent that Peter Dunlap-Shohl utilizes to bring these ideas together.  My Degeneration:  A Journey through Parkinson's, is a book that will not only help the patient to clarify the brain changes and resulting physical and mental challenges that will result, but is also very reassuring to the caregiver or family member most intimately involved in their loved one's degenerative process.  It is my intention to share this book with relatives outside of the immediate family and key friends who by their closeness will gain insight and understanding that could be lacking.  Often, it  is this lack of grasp of the breadth of symptoms and loss that brings about frustration and a sense of alienation for the patient.

Peter and I have been fellow bloggers regarding Parkinson's and other Atypical Parkinsonian syndromes for parts of the last decade.  I have appreciated his support, ideas and encouragement.  Today he inspired me to write more and get some skin back in the game of letting the world know what degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson's are all about.  You can read more on Peter Dunlop-Shohl's blog at: http://offandonakpdrag.blogspot.com/

My Degeneration: A Journey Through Parkinson's can be viewed or purchased at:

 https://www.amazon.com/My-Degeneration-Journey-Parkinsons-Medicine/dp/0271071028/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478279304&sr=1-1&keywords=my+degeneration+a+journey+through+parkinson%27s

Congratulations on this fine publication, Peter, and thank you for inspiring us all! -- Patient-Online