Parkinson's Support Group
Saint Clair Street Senior Center Murfreesboro TN
Parkinson's Support Group
Saint Clair Street Senior Center Murfreesboro TN
7 JANUARY 2022 COFFEE AND CAKE KICKOFF
Ron Ream
We want to start the year off right so join us for some warm coffee and baked treats. We will reflect on the things we did in 2021 then have a discussion about 2022 Goals for our group.
The images above tell the story. We wanted everyone to join us for coffee and cake at our New Year kickoff meeting. But mother nature dumps 5 inches of snow and freezing temperatures which results in a Zoom meeting. No matter, we adapted.
We had a great time looking back at 2021. We did our usual things "Aware-in-Care" check, update on sick, discussion time and get-to-know you. Watson and In were our get-to-know you members this meeting. They were both interesting and left us all wanting to know them better. We thanked Joe for his work at the Christmas party setting up the photo booth and creating memory pictures for us. Our chat session resulted in some good ideas about future speakers and outreach to find more Persons with Parkinson's and Care Partners.
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4 FEBRUARY 2022 KELLY ARNEY
Kelly Arney, MSSW, Outreach Coordinator for the Parkinson Foundation Center of Excellence at Vanderbilt was our guest speaker.
Ms. Kelly planned to be our guest speaker in Murfreesboro BUT for the second month in a row the weather forced us to a zoom meeting. Kelly made a great presentation via zoom about "preparing for your Doctor's appointment."
We had heard that some people avoid Zoom meeting because their hair looks bad on Zoom. So to take away that excuse we had a "HAT DAY" and it was worth the price of admission. George wore a hat he picked up in Germany at Octoberfest, horns and all. George recieved the most votes and will get a prize. Lots of GREAT hats.
We enjoyed learning about Komiko and Ann in our "get-to-know-you" segment. We are so blessed with our talented and accomplished members.
It was good to see Karen again and nice to have Martha with us. She gave us an update on Wally and thanked everyone for the kind gestures of food, cards, calls and texts while Wally has been 11 weeks in the VA home and hospital fighting infection and covid.
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4 MARCH 2022 Laura Grissom
The Maple Street Biscuit Company provided goodies for this meeting.
GUEST SPEAKER was Laura Grissom wellness director at Saint Clair. She covered the many programs and options that are available at the Senior Center that could be helpful to people with Parkinson's and Care Givers. We also had a line dance presentation by Phyllis Petty an instructor in dance. Ron introduced a cognitive self evaluation tool with a handout. We also enjoyed getting to know Jim Upton and Dianne Phillips in our getting to know you segment. Our discussion groups focused on Senior Center programs and the cognitive self evaluation exercise handout.
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1 APRIL 2022 Byron Coleman
Byron spoke about the Inbrija the levodopa inhaler, as a short term solution to "off times". Sharon led us in some exercises and we had our "get-to-know-you" segment. We learned about John Cain and we learned a little about Carol Ellis. In our discussion groups we talked about "Share Groups" and asked if it would be better to gather by gender rather than by patient and care giver. We also remembered Wally Sudduth and Jerry Jensen before closing. Ron asked everyone to visit our website and let others know how you are doing in this " Parkinson's Awareness" month of April.
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6 MAY 2022 CLAIRE CARRICO
Thanks for those who were able to be at our First Friday May meeting. We had a few new people.
It was good to see Martha Sudduth again. She always brings her kind smile.
Thanks again to David and Carol Ellis for bringing the goodies again. And thanks to David for arranging
for our Guest speaker Claire Carrico who gave a great presentation about the Loud program that is
part of the BIG and LOUD exercise program for Parkinson's patients. We all learned something about
voice projection and how to recover a shrinking voice effected by PD.
In our get-to-know-you segment we learned more about Jon MacBeth and David Ellis.
In the picture below we have Carol Ellis and David Ellis and our speaker Claire Carrico.
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3 JUNE 2022 SPEAKER Jay Berryman from ABBVIE Neuroscience talked about the automatic medication delivery system called Duopa. Sharon led our exercise segment and we had our Aware in Care check as usual. In our get-to-know you segment we learned a little more about Martha Sudduth and Karen Alexander. Our discussion groups talked about the Duopa and made suggestion for the July 8 Patriotic party.
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8 JULY 2022 PATRIOTIC SUMMER PARTY
AUGUST 5 MEETING - Bunny Donnelly , PT, MOMP
Bunny is a Physical Therapist who instructs the BIG part of the BIG and LOUD method of therapy. Bunny explained how this program can benefit a person with Parkinson's with practical examples and exercises.
In addition to her two degrees in PT, Bunny holds numerous other certifications making her one of the highest trained physical therapists in Rutherford County.
SEPTEMBER 2 MEETING - Bethany Phalen
Our Speaker was from Boston Scientific and discussed Deep Brain Stimulation
Bethany has worked with the Parkinson’s Community in Middle Tennessee and both the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Bethany has experience in Deep Brain Stimulation for Boston Scientific. This meeting had the most questions asked of any meeting we have hosted. Bethany did a great job answering.
OCTOBER 7 MEETING - A WORKING MEETING
We had a working meeting with everyone pitching in. We selected the top ten topics for Guest Speakers for next year. We also had a great presentation from Judy Heim about a book on tips to help anyone dealing with Parkinson's. These were helpful handy hacks. Karen Alexander led us in some strecthing exercises as well. We also discussed outreach and ways to help raise awareness about Parkinson's. We recognized our fund raising toward Moving Day October 22. The leaders are Ken Heidkemp, Karen Alexander, Sharon Ream and we thanked David Ellis for his promotions on Facebook that may result in the most contributions total. We encouraged everyone to ask family and friends to join us walking on 22 October for Moving Day. We also announced the Parkinson's Foundation has selected Murfreesboro for the Southeast Region ( KY TN) spring Symposium. This will be the first time Murfreesboro will host. We had 7 new people with us as a result of personal invitations from our members and the Senior Center Health Fair held the day before our meeting.
OCTOBER 22 Moving Day Parkinson's Foundation
OCTOBER 22 Moving Day Parkinson's Foundation
The Parkinson's Support Group from Murfreesboro may have had the most attendees present on Saturday. I think Phyllis Hurt had the largest number of family and friends from our group.
We had some members of our Group recognized by the Parkinson's Foundation. Ken Heidkamp was recognized as the overall leader for individual fund raising. Sharon Ream was number 3 and Karen Alexander was number 8 out of 26 teams in the Nashville Area. We also recognize George Neely for one of the largest and generous single contributions.
Karen Alexander also had her well written Parkinson's story read. We may get her to read it again at our next meeting. Thanks to Joe Kinney who took pictures.
OCTOBER 22 Moving Day Parkinson's Foundation
NOVEMBER 4 MEETING -
Ron recognized several of our members as a results of the "Moving Day" event and fund raiser. George Neely was recognized for his large personal donation. Karen Alexander had her Parkinson's story read at the Moving Day event. Karen was also recognized as the number 8 individual fund raiser for the event. Sharon Ream was recognized as the number 3 individual fund raiser. Ken Heidkemp was the number one individual fund raiser for the event and was also recognized at the event. Each of these individuals was presented with a letter of appreciation from our Support Group and a letter of appreciation from the Parkinson Foundation. The result of the all of our fund raisers put Murfreesboro as the number two team in the event out of 26 teams Participating.
Ron gave a short report on the "Blazing Toward a Cure" event and conducted a Care Partner survey and collected the results for input to the Parkinson's Foundation.
DECEMBER 9 Holiday Party - No Speaker Just Fun
GREAT Holiday Party- with Food- with Music- with Holiday stories-with a Sorry Santa gift exchange.
MORE TO COME
WATCH HERE
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