Trip to Parkinson's Conference in Brisbane

Our main trip this year will be a five week tour or Germany, our last one was two years ago so this short six day jaunt was a practice run at travelling with Parkinson's. I had been reading Bob Kuhn's blog Positively Parkinsons (also the title of Anne Andrew's book ) about his round the world odyssey and been encouraged to think I would cope with luggage, delays, and other pitfalls. We had been thinking of escaping the cold in Auckland so this idea of taking in part of the Australian Parkinson's Conference was good for both. There was a very full programme of about 10 speakers starting at 8.30 am which with the 2 hour time lag with Auckland made it attendable.  All the same such a full day was definitely tiring and by afternooon tea when Dieter appeared on the horizon I tossed in the sponge and left. 

I took copious notes which I find is the best way to remember things having the additional prompt  of the written word.  The only trouble is that my handwriting is becoming illegible even to my own eye. Ever positive,  I realized I was well-off when  I  heard about some of the other things that could and still might  happen to one in my situation. 

I was impressed with the amount of research and dedication to finding cause and cure for PD going on in Australia.  It gives me hope that a breakthrough is not far away and in the meantime there are things  I can do which help maintain quality of life and ameloriate side effects.  As Assoc. Prof  Simon Lewis pointed out Parkinson's is like a box of chocolates - full of soft centres. We are all different and experience similar things but differently.  

More on the individual sessions in future posts.