So what fun things have you been up to lately?So, what fun things have you been up to lately’  

The finest question a health care professional can ask. It also happens to be the finest question I can ask myself.

Mask face. Anybody home?

Have you ever seen that experiment of a mother looking at her a few months old baby?The baby sits in a baby chair, the mother sits opposite the child, very close and looks sweetly, softly, motherly and smilingly at her child. The child smiles back happily, wiggles its hands and feet and almost wriggles out of the chair with joy. Then the mother turns around for a moment. When she looks at her baby again, she keeps her face fixed and impassive. She doesn't laugh. The child falls silent, is startled and starts screaming. Total despair in the child. Contact with the mother has been broken. She has become unreachable. World collapses. I can relate to that. It’s a Parkinson’s symptom too. Mask face. Horrible word. I think it is one of the worst symptoms of Parkinson's. It was one of the first things that, looking back, puzzled me the…

Continue ReadingMask face. Anybody home?

Planet Researcher to Planet Patient (by Simon Stott)

Wim Rozenberg Fotografie

Simon’s answer to Planet Patient vs Planet Researcher

“She’s really ‘leuk’ (Dutch for nice).”

Diagnosed at 46 with Parkinson’s, Mariëtte keeps a great blog that touches on many areas of life, including boxing. But it also provides her with a medium to discuss how she lives with Parkinson’s (you should follow her if you don’t already).

(more…)

Continue ReadingPlanet Researcher to Planet Patient (by Simon Stott)

Tell me about your Life

    Tell me about when you were little; the hands with which you played in the sand, the food you shunned, the small heartaches and the huge plans. Tell me about a time when you were so sure that you’d grow up big and strong, and what you would and wouldn’t do. Tell me about the grownups, the role models in your fledgling world. Tell me about your home and your place at the kitchen table. Tell me about your first despair, your first triumph. Your very first hero. Tell me what makes you happy and sad or, better still, what makes you giggle uncontrollably. And when was the last time. Tell me what you're good and not so good at. Tell me which faces are forever in your mind, which eyes you love to see. Tell me about your favorite book, the music that makes your heart leap.…

Continue ReadingTell me about your Life