My story

I was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2005.I only had tremors at this time. I managed with medicines for a number of years. It slowly progressed to where this disease stated to impact my daily activities. I switched doctors in 2013 and began another set of different medicines. After a while, medicines became ineffective. I was moving slower, clomping my feet when I walked, stopped running, slow to get dressed, very slow tying my shoes, more shaking, and could not sit still at meetings. My wonderful wife helped with a few things.

I retired in June, 2016 and was referred to the Movement Disorder Department at Rush Hospital in Chicago. We tried a few medicines and even increased the number to 8 per day. I could not keep up and I saw little change. I was advised DBS would work for me. I had the surgery in September, 2017.  God performed a miracle. I became a different person and was told I was like the “Energizer Bunny” with energy level at 110%. I went back to doing all couldn’t do before the surgery. I even stated running again, substitute taught part time at the local middle schools and started writing books. One book was entitled “When Life Gets Shaky”, which is my story about our lives with Parkinson’s and how God helped us. In the fall of 2021, I went through therapy for swallowing and speaking. They are minimized concerns at the current time. In January, 2022, my wife and I started a Parkinson’s support group at the over 55 community we moved into in December, 2020. My book is available at Amazon. Funny, it seems to sell in pairs – one for the person who knows a friend with PD and one for themselves.