About this blog

I started this personal blog to share my experience as a person living with young onset Parkinson’s disease and facing two total knee replacements. My Parkinson’s has remained fairly stable these last few years and my bionic knees have enabled me to resume my regular activities without pain.

I wish that I had been able to end my story here, but that was not to be. In the fall 2015, with no warning signs, I was diagnosed with stage 4 endometrial cancer that had spread beyond my uterus. Following extensive surgery, weeks of rehab, and 18 chemo treatments – each with their own adverse side effects — my surgeon pronounced me “cancer-free.” It is nothing short of a miracle.

My hope is that the lessons I’ve learned on my own personal journey will inspire and empower others to chart their own course to living well with Parkinson’s and whatever other life changing events come their way. This has been my goal since I co-founded pdplan4life.com with a friend almost eight years ago.

I was diagnosed with young onset Parkinson’s disease 20 years ago at age 44.  My husband and I had begun planning our “empty nester” years — and my having a progressive, incurable disease was not in the picture. Eventually I learned that together we would find a way to get on with our life and dream new dreams, even if it meant learning to dance in the rain.