SATURDAY – JAN. 13

In the middle of the night, my dad came out of their room. Staying in the same place as two parents with needs means sleeping with one eye open. I asked him what he was doing. He said there were spiders everywhere. I asked him to show me. He pointed at several places next to his bed. There were no spiders. Hallucinations are a very real part of PD for some people. My dad had told me the frequency of his hallucinations were increasing. Now I was seeing that. I was able to calm him and he went back to bed. My mom, on the other hand, didn’t move. 

The next morning I immediately got back on the phone with my parents’ assisted living facility. The morning nurse was far more informed and capable than the previous evening. She made several calls and a few hours later I heard back from the pharmacy that I had visited the night before that I could come pick up the pills they previously said they couldn’t give us. No charge. Thanks. 

I took dad with me as I didn’t want to leave him in the VRBO with a worthless TV. I tried to get mom to come, too, but she kept saying she couldn’t. I didn’t have the energy to fight her, so she stayed in bed. We had several errands to run, which included getting food, some supplies for the half marathon and, of course, the pills. Dad came in with me sometimes, and stayed in the car other times. When I left him in the car, I would lock the door to keep dad safe. Dad, who can’t stop himself from touching things, pushing buttons and pulling levers, would often open the door at some point after I walked away, setting off the alarm. It’s a loud alarm and I recognized it. I got good at holding the keys so I could turn it off quickly. 

We made it back to the VRBO and mom hadn’t moved. I heated up frozen pizzas in the oven, which set off the shrieking fire alarm in the VRBO. I was able to temporarily get them to stop and wrote to our host requesting help. I prepped the Hoyt Running chair for the half marathon. My sister and her wife, Julie, arrived a few hours later. They are great with mom and dad and I finally got to breathe a bit, knowing I had some help. 

We had to be in bed by 8:30p because we had to get up at 2:45a for the half marathon the next morning. 

Originally Published on https://www.yesandexercise.org/

Robert Cochrane, PhD Yes, And...eXercise!

Dr. Robert Cochrane is a graduate of UNLV's Integrated Health Sciences department. He's researching the effect of improvisation and storytelling on Parkinson’s disease. He received grants from the Parkinson's Foundation and support from the Davis Phinney Foundation along the way. He is a popular, unique and high energy Keynote speaker, bringing joy, optimism and practical tools for people in the PD community to thrive today.

He has a background in filmmaking, with the Artisan Entertainment release, The Playaz Court, and two Stephen King-based short films among his credits. His father, Dan, was diagnosed with PD in 2001, which shifted Robert’s artistic lens to health. He made his first documentary, the award-winning Boys of Summer in 2004. There are two follow up films in the series with the fourth film coming in 2023.

He moved his family back to Walnut Creek, CA, where he grew up. He lives there with his beautiful wife, two teenagers who are, indeed, "all that" and is a proud care partner for his amazing parents.