Conquer PD!

Some recent events that I have been involved in are: The Optimism Race-A 5K Run/Walk put on by the APDA and Banner Thunderbird Hospital. It was held at Midwestern University. I was able to run most of the 5K and it felt great. Tammy, head of the Physical Therapy Clinic at Banner, had me lead the "scoop" just before the race began and it was great. Also, another highlight of the race is as I was coming down the last stretch Will Trujillo, my friend who is a physical therapist I met at Banner, and J.A. Graves, a new friend I met at the Mid Western Medical School, who is going through the physical therapy training there, came out to run in with me. How exciting it was to have them there and then as we got closer in Tammy and Sarah joined us as well. It was great! Thanks friends!

I am trying a new approach to my fundraising. My next big adventure this spring is being with my friends from POPS Ride (Peddling Over Parkinsons), as they embark on another epic cycling trip, raising awareness to PD and funds for a cure to various foundations, which this trip is from Vancouver BC to San Diego, CA! I will be riding segments of the trip and plan to have a great time meeting new people, talking to PD support groups, etc. So, I would like to offer some homemade cakes to auction off and see if those who live here in the Phoenix area would like to get a great cake for their donation. This freshly baked cake is a marbled Red Velvet. Home made, not from a box. It has layers of a raspberry flavor filling and a chocolate pudding filling. The icing is a buttercream and it is decorated with chocolate syrup and herschey kisses. It should be delicious! Starting bids at $25.00 the bidding will go until noon today. Send a message to this blog post with your bid.

I am going to take the liberty of expressing my freedom of speech by letting my friends know about one of my greatest friends....Lance. I met Lance and his beautiful family I think sometime in the spring/summer of 2011. We met at Banner Thunderbird Physical Therapy Center where we both had went through the BIG program, which is a program designed for people with Parkinson's Disease to help them with their agility, balance, coordination, and stretching, and to help them exten d and strengthen themselves to be able to combat the effects PD has on us. Lance and his family had originally become associated with the therapists at Banner when they had participated in one of the Optimism 5K events that Banner sponsors in conjunction with the AZAPDA, Arizona Chapter American Parkinson Disease Association, when they had traveled over to Arizona from Southern California to participate in it. He was discovered by them and was invited to come to their program to get positive effects of the prog...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3li4_P6iYUWcGQ4N25NUDRkbDA/edit?usp=sharing

I recently asked some of my PD friends to share with me some humor associated with PD, so here are some contributions: Not being much of a story teller, I still find this humorous.  About 20 years ago, while I was still working, there was a man who worked with us whom we called "Stinky Stan".  He had the worst BO you could ever imagine.  When I asked why he didn't do something about it, I was told that he wasn't aware of it because he had lost he sense of smell and taste.  To that, I replied, if that ever happened to me, I would surely not stink up the place anld because he could not taste either I thought if that were to happen to me, I would eat nothing but health food.  Well, guess what?  I lost my smell and taste and my wife will occasionally sniff me and order me to go change shirts.  And as for the weight, I'm continuously eating junk food and have two pairs of slacks that fit.  The old saying "what goes around, comes around" seems to be m...

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3li4_P6iYUWZWdpTndSVXFKM3M/edit