Free Webinar
Webinar Series with Greg Ritscher:
“Master and Commander of the
Good Ship Parkinson’s”
Hope might be one of the strongest words in our language, second only to Love. Hope is a simple word, that is easy to say and rhymes with a number of other words like: cope, dope, mope, rope, and scope, all of which I will tie into this post while discussing our ability to thrive despite having Parkinson’s disease.
Join me on Wednesday 5/13 at 2pm MDT for an interactive webinar put on by the Parkinson’s Association of the Rockies (Info@ParkinsonRockies.org 303/830-1839). This free webinar is designed to help you see and understand the power of Patient Oriented Outcomes that can bring us Hope.
Among my many Parkinson’s related projects, I have developed the Parkinson’s Life Assessment (PLA) tool as a means to monitor, measure, and manage the affects of Parkinson’s in my own life. You can use the PLA by inputting the data you observe about yourself as well as input you receive from your support team. It gives you a well-balanced view of how you are doing overall. I like to review and adjust my personal PLA on an annual basis. A tool like the PLA is needed to ensure that the growing number of people diagnosed with Parkinson’s can learn to thrive in life by assessing where they are currently at in the thier process of addressing the following areas:
COPE
Coping with the disease and actually learning to thrive with Parkinson’s in your life is the first major step. Often Parkinson’s, with its wide array of Motor, Non-Motor, and Psychological symptoms can appear to be daunting. You just have to take the process one day at a time.
DOPE
Dope-amine scarcity in your brain increases as the disease progresses. We need to develop more, and better tools to thrive as time goes by. The disease will only continue to gain dominance in your daily life, you should take actions now to gain a head start before the most debilitating affects take hold. Don’t wait for the symptoms to get worse before you start taking your ability to create dopamine seriously.
MOPE
Moping about and losing interest in life can be a very natural outcome when faced with Parkinson’s. But prolonged depression will be very detrimental to you and everyone around you. It creates a huge burden on marriages, families, and society ($52B/year is the estimated cost of depression to society). Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of despair, because once you start down that path, it only gets harder to change your course. If you find you are on the wrong path currently, get all the help you need now - whether from friends, family, or professionals - so you can find a better path sooner then later.
ROPE
You have to rope in all the resources you can to combat the affects of Parkinson’s, while insuring you get the greatest return for your efforts and time. There are numerous resources waiting for you. You just have to be willing to search them out. And don’t underestimate your friends and families ability to help you along the way, the people who love you want to help, give them some ideas of what they can do.
SCOPE
The scope of effects on your life is enormous and enduring. Parkinson’s is such an individual disease, and your specific symptoms will indicate where you should focus your time and energies to gain the best possible quality of life. Developing your own PLA will bring so many different types of ideas to the surface, here are some great ideas to consider:
Nutritional Education
Arts Classes
Support Groups
Educational Talks
Research Opportunities and
Exercise classes
Classes on Dance
Yoga
Ti Chi
Spinning
Boxing
Parkinson’s disease often appears to take things away from your normal life, like eating soup with a spoon or buttoning your clothes by yourself. Because we are slowly loosing our abilities over time, nothing makes me feel better than learning a new skill set, post-Parkinson’s, like the “Rope-a-Dope” dance, boxing, or archery.
The PLA gives you a sense of internal locus of control and will help you to “see” what is working for you in your battle with Parkinson’s. It is also a great tool to use in monitoring your symptoms, to use on your visits to your Neurologist or Movement Specialist.
I HOPE to see you online for the free webinar!
Stay strong, God’s speed,
Greg Ritscher
Be sure to post in the comments below if you have some thoughts you want to share with everyone. Also, check out my new book, I wrote it for all of us!
