Parkinson Social NetworkNice weather for a duck
It’s raining, it’s pouring, there are ducks on the front lawn?!! I’m so glad I took a photo of this feathery fellow who was catching up to his mates this morning or I would have thought I was seeing things. We’ve lived here for 13 years and this is the first duck I’ve ever seen on our lot. I think they were headed for The Swamp – also known as our backyard.
Cafe Fairfax 
We had a very informative discussion with Dr. John Dresely, O.D. FCOVD when he visited us on Wednesday to talk about Parkinson’s Disease: Effect on Vision. We learned that people with Parkinson’s can experience dry eyes, blephartitis (a low-grade infection of the eyelid), decreased color vision (usually with blues and yellows), visual hallucinations, spasm or weakness of the eyelids and about 14% can experience double vision. When we look at something we’re using 80% of the brain because it’s not just for what we see, but the language we use to describe what we’re seeing, and how the brain interprets other things like color. Dr. Dresely brought along some of his “toys”, such as glasses to demonstrate how vision can affect your balance, and cards that show how difficult it is to read and remember when the eyes aren’t working together well. There were lots of questions and we appreciated his easy to understand answers.
Caregiver Class at Insight Memory Care Center
Along with a couple of other ladies who attended Cafe Fairfax, I stayed on to hear Colleen Walker talk about Activities of Daily Living Success! It was great to see how the participants helped each other. For instance, women in the group suggested products for a husband to help his wife remove her makeup, while a couple of gentlemen explained the shaving process to the wives so they could make it a less stressful experience for their husbands. Lindsey, Director of Education and Outreach at Insight, did a marvelous job of finding many of the products we discussed, displaying them on the monitor so we could all see. We learned that you can find almost anything on Amazon, and that Home Depot has a Health & Wellness section on its website to help people age in place. For adaptive clothing Buck and Buck (We make dressing easier) was suggested.
There’s a new PD Support Group in Alexandria at Paul Spring
Tuesday May 22 at 1:00 pm
Where: Paul Spring Independent & Assisted Living Community
7116 Fort Hunt Rd, Alexandria, VA 22307
Contact: Alexandra Woodman Johnson
Ajohnson@olddominionhomecare.com or (703) 772-0887
Alexandra was asked by residents at Paul Spring to start a support group there, but they want you to know that anyone touched by Parkinson’s is welcome.
Cafes next week
You have your choice of joining us at two cafes next week! We’ll be in Alexandria on Monday and Ashburn on Wednesday. I’m looking forward to introducing you to Susan Dietrich from APDA who is visiting Cafe Alexandria, and Margie Comerford, SLP, who will be guiding us through some speech and cognition activities at Cafe Ashburn.
Our hosts at both locations are offering us a free light lunch, so please RSVP to help us with planning. There’s more information about our cafes on our cafes page.
Hope to see you out and about soon!
Cheers,
Sonia
Sonia@ParkinsonSocialNetwork.org
World Parkinson’s Day – a month later
Can you believe that World Parkinson’s Day was only a month ago today? I subscribe to a newsletter from the EPDA (European Parkinson’s Disease Association) and this morning in their latest issue they reported on the #UniteForParkinsons campaign. Their purpose was to “unite and mobilise the global Parkinson’s community, making a positive difference to the lives of people with Parkinson’s”. Also from their newsletter, here are some of the results:
“• more than 8 million people reached around the world via social media
• nearly 900,000 social media engagements
• nearly 90,000 visits to uniteforparkinsons.org from 199 countries
• nearly 18,000 views of the #UniteForParkinsons promotional film
• more than 17,000 hashtag uses from 97 countries hashtag trending on 11 April.”
(More details on their website at https://uniteforparkinsons.org/)
Very impressive! And exciting to see how the worldwide Parkinson community came together to shine a spotlight on Parkinson’s and increase awareness. In a recent media release by Parkinson’s Australia they wrote, “Parkinson’s Australia is the national peak body and charity representing more than 80,000 Australians living with Parkinson’s. We advocate for the needs of the 800,000 people living with Parkinson’s, their families and carers.” The way I read read this, for every person living with Parkinson’s there are at least 10 people who care about them and want to help them live a happy and fulfilling life. That’s a lot of love and support!
Fun with More Gadgets & Gizmos at Cafe McLean
Michelle Scott, Caregiver Specialist with the Fairfax Area Agency on Aging visited us on Wednesday. You may recall that Michelle visited Cafe Fairfax in April with her wonderful bag full of gadgets and gizmos. I’m working on a page for our website to share them with you and I’ll be sure to let you know when it’s ready. In the meantime, if you have any items that you’ve found helpful, please send me a photo and brief description and I’ll include them. I’ve had some interesting things sent to me already! We also enjoyed a lovely lunch courtesy of the generous folk at Lewinsville Retirement Residence. We hope you can join us at our next Cafe McLean on June 13!
Parkinson’s Foundation – Moving Day® DC – Saturday, June 2
Gary, who leads the support group in Ashburn, forwarded an email to his mailing list from Anna who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s 11 years ago. I’ve included her message below so you can read about the event and her request for sponsorship for her Rock Steady Boxing NoVa team. There’s more on her team webpage here.
We share a wide variety of resources from Parkinson’s Foundation at our cafe’s and other events. My personal favorite is their Parkinson’s Disease Fact Sheet – so handy for explaining Parkinson’s, particularly to medical professionals. If you’d like to participate in Moving Day® DC, more information about this event can be found here, on their website.
Insight Memory Care Center is really hopping!
Insight hosts our Cafe Fairfax on the 3rd Wednesday each month. They also offer free workshops and classes for caregivers that many of us have found helpful, not only those with a loved one living with dementia.
• On Tuesday, May 15th from 10:00 am – 12 noon we hope to see you at Cafe Fairfax when our visitor will be Dr. Dresely, a Developmental and Behavioral Optometrist who will talk about how Parkinson’s can affect the entire visual process. He will bring handouts, answer questions, and lead us through a couple of fun vision therapy demonstrations. Please click here to RSVP.
• On Tuesday, May 15th from 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm you can join in and Celebrate @ Insight!
• On Wednesday, May 16, after Cafe Fairfax, Colleen Walker will be talking about Activities of Daily Living Success! and how you can make each day more successful. If you’re caring for a loved one at home, come and learn tips and tricks for providing hands-on care for eating, dressing, bathing, hygiene and toileting.
• On Wednesday, May 30 from 10:00 – 11:30 am the topic is Connecting through Creativity: Art Therapy with Crista L. Kostenko, ATR-BC, LCPAT.
• On Saturday, June 9 from 1:00 – 2:30 pm there’s an interactive class for caregivers called Movement & Meditation: An Interactive Workshop with Cynthia Bialek, RYT500
For more information about these events and more, please check out their website, click here to view their events calendar, or contact Lindsey Vajpeyi, Director of Education and Outreach at 703-270-0043 or lindsey.vajpeyi@insightmcc.org
I’ve added a new event to the Community Events page of our website – Safe Driving as You Age, organized by NV Rides. It’s on Thursday, May 17, from 9:30 am-1:30 pm and includes a free lunch! You’ll find more community events on the same page, in order by date.
Hope to see you Out and About soon!
Cheers,
Sonia
Sonia@ParkinsonSocialNetwork.org
Parkinson Social Network 