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Woodcarving

Years ago, as a teen, I worked in a hobby shop where we sold a wide variety of things to support people’s hobby and craft interests.     While working there, I learned a bit about stamp and coin collecting, tried my hand at ceramics, and fell in love with model rocketry, which consumed a good portion of my meager income! Although never using one, I had interest in the Dremel tools and accessories we sold.  These were priced well beyond my means, and really were overkill for anything I would use them for in model rocketry. Nevertheless, over the years, I have had a few projects for which I thought a Dremel would have been useful, but never felt the expense was justifiable.   Until now! It started with a ceramic casserole dish that was chipped in a way that I couldn’t easily smooth out with sandpaper.  I also had a door that wouldn’t close well during humid times of the year.  I had worked on the door in a crude way with a drill and grinde...
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Connecting the Dots: Parkinson’s Disease and the Autonomic Nervous System

The autonomic nervous system is fascinating!     It is the system that “automatically” controls the things that go on in our body without our thinking or consciously controlling.     Our temperature control, for example, is one of its functions.     When we get hot, our blood vessels near the skin dilate to let heat escape, and we produce sweat to cool use through evaporation.     The autonomic system also controls digestion, the “fight or flight” response, breathing and much more.     We can consciously influence it to a degree (holding your breath, for example), but most of what it does is just automatic. Parkinson’s disease can influence the autonomic nervous system years before the typical tremor appears. As I look at the list of symptoms associated with Parkinson’s, I can connect many dots.  I lost most of my sense of smell 15-20 years ago.  That’s one of the dots!   About 5 years ago, bladder spas...
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Incomplete Creation (7/18/25)

I watched my 4 ½ year-old grandson make his “creation”, giving him affirmation when he repeatedly asked, “Grandpa, is my creation beautiful?”   To someone who just saw the jumbled disordered pieces of colored paper and tape mushed together in a three-dimensional blob, this might have looked like something ready for the trash bin.  But to me, as I watched my grandson carefully tear paper and tape, arranging them in a way that to him had an order and beauty, and to him, evoked a rainbow, it was indeed beautiful and wonderous.  I was observing the image of God in my grandson.  Just like his creator, he desired to create.  And he wanted me to enjoy the creation with him.   When God created the universe, he said it was good, but he didn’t say it was complete.  God has given us an example of being a creator, and has placed within us his image, which includes the desire to create.  He gave us creation so that we could b...
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A Pill Organizer? (7/14/25)

There have been times that I have had to take a pill twice or three times a day.     Usually it was an antibiotic, and only prescribed for a week or two.     Occasionally I would forget a pill, especially once I was feeling better and not so focused on the illness. I have seen many “older” folks with pill organizers.  You’ve seen them.  Those plastic boxes with multiple compartments marked with days and times.  I thought they were a helpful tool for those whose minds were slipping a bit. About a month ago, I started to take medicine, initially as a test to see if it improved my tremor, which would solidify the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.  The medicine, carbidopa / levodopa, did reverse the tremor when dosed high enough, but was also accompanied by significant side effects at that level.  However, at a lower dose, while the tremor persists, I have great improvement in back pain and bladder spasms, both well worth...
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Reflections on Mortality, Part 3: Illness, (and Worry Revisited) (9/25/24)

(As I review this in July 2025, I broke this down into three segments to make it more digestible!  Since now being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, in retrospect, many things make more sense.)     A physician who treats himself has a fool for a patient! Sir William Osler   My mother died of pancreatic cancer at age 65.  Her father also died of pancreatic cancer, as did his brother!  (And just last month, June 2025, my mom’s sister also died of pancreatic cancer.) This specter floats in the back of my mind!   When I was in my early 60’s, I visited my cousin, who was dying of esophageal cancer, at age 65.  His mother, the youngest sibling of my grandfather who died of pancreatic cancer remarked about the apparent curse on the Machnauer firstborns who died of cancer at age 65 (her son, my mother, my mother’s father).  I was the firstborn, and had 65 in the near future!  I am now 67, so I beat the curse, but ...
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The Belly of the Beast (7/12/25)

Yesterday I was reading the   daily meditation from the Center for Action and Contemplation .     This week’s theme was focused on Jonah.     Richard Rohr wrote:   … We have to be swallowed by something bigger than ourselves. The phrase used by many, including Thomas Merton, was that we have to go into the “belly of the beast”—a place where we are not in control, where we can’t fix it, explain it, understand it, or even like it. Our lack of control, our lack of preference isn’t important. We just have to learn from it.       Even though Richard Rohr was referring to adolescent male initiation into adulthood, this resonated with me as a description of aging!   Not much I can do about it!  Might as well learn from it!   Dave Drozek with Ruminations from Retirement
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Reflections on Mortality, Part 2: Medications (9/25/24)

(As I review this in July 2025, I broke this down into three segments to make it more digestible!  Since now being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, in retrospect, many things make more sense.)   It is very easy to prescribe medications!  When learning about medications in medical school, generally we focus on the “indications” or reasons to use a specific drug.  But we tend to skim over at the overwhelming list of potential side effects or problems with a drug, especially when it only was reported in a small percentage of people.  However, with so many people on multiple medications, there are a lot of people with side effects and undetected interactions between drugs.  The patients often are not aware that what they are experiencing is related to their medication.  Unfortunately, many medical providers are equally unaware!   Often people take drugs for side effects of other drugs!  For example, the ubiqu...
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