Parkinson's: Balance & Falling

Snarky Parky  & me

A journey Into Parkinson's With Nancy Mellon

Blog Coordinated by Corrine Bayraktaroglu

The past couple of weeks, I  have had a bonanza of both good and not-so-good moments. Making art and planning for this coming weekend's Puzzle Hunt are in the good category. Low blood pressure episodes, a couple of near black outs, and pain in my legs and back,(and lots of trying to figure out what is causing each and make a plan of what to do,) come into the mostly not-feeling-so-good category. That's my excuse for not getting a post ready this last week. 

So it is 5 p.m. on Monday...

I thought i would  instead  copy an e mail that I sent to a buddy, who' s mom has Parkinson's.  Her mom had started having trouble with her balance, (and in the last month, she has fallen quite a few times. She is feeling very scared of falling.)  

I wanted to help. I hoped I had at least a partial answer, this is what I wrote:

I take exercise classes with THW  (Total Health Works.)  It is a gym (in Columbus) out of which, Jackie Russel and David Zid run their  online PD  "Brain and Body" classes. They add in education, tips and classes for problems that many with PD face.   Balance issues, are almost always addressed, They even have a balance class, in their on demand classes that focus on just  one issue (like getting up from the floor, walking/freezing, etc.)

You can get 2 weeks free while you try them out.  I did that , I think most everyone uses that perk. You can cancel your membership at any time. I've been going to them for about a year now.  

I thought they were very reasonable for all you got.  Membership  is $49.95 per month for as many online classes as you want to take. I love online classes. You can do them when you can and you don' t have to go anywhere.  David and Jackie also have in person classes at their gym.  The online classes started  during the pandemic, but they have felt the use of them since then (I'm awfully glad) and have continued them. 

If you want to, (I really like this, the best of all)  you can come online, around 20 minutes before a live, online class starts, and talk with the people who are going to the class.  (But I don't  often manage to get on early.) You can  meet up with many of the same people, every time you go to a live, online  class, they come from many different states and also some different countries. . 

THW offers 2 different versions of their online classes.   

1. Live ones (where a live instructor in the gym, is interacting with us , via the internet, while we get to exercise at home.)
2. Canned classes (they call them "on demand classes")  where they have filmed our online live classes and offer those to members at any time to take a class from home. You can take as many as you want -when you can, at any time.  Which i find very convenient for my weird Parkinson's non-schedule, my changing abilities during each day and my -when- can- I- eat needs. 

The classes are at different levels -pretty easy (what i usually take) to intermediate to tough. (I have tried  one of the Boot Camp ones in the "on demand" form.)

I really like the 2 owners/teachers/coaches./friends. They are fun, they care about us, they laugh a lot (maybe because they care about us???).  They greet us and  talk to us as individuals, each time we go to a live online  class.  They are constantly teaching us how to work with our physical body and our  brain,  

 It is a very friendly community.  David and Jackie  (Jackie is also a nurse) wrote and designed a program for PD called Delay the Disease.  With over 25 years of experience of  working with people with PD they are very knowledgeable about Parkinson's.

Well that is my spiel.  I hope your mom feels better soon.

Cheers,

Nancy and the Snark