Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimberly Schlapman spends her nights on stage rocking alongside her bandmates in country band Little Big Town. Her fans also know her as an avid home chef, frequently posting videos of her latest kitchen creations \u2014 she even has her own cookbook! But when she\u2019s not on stage or whipping up something delicious, she\u2019s caregiving for her mother, Barbara Bramlett, who is living with Parkinson\u2019s disease. \u201cMy mother was diagnosed 21 years ago with Parkinson’s, and at that time, our family really had no idea what all was involved with the disease,\u201d Schlapman said. At that point, her mother was living a really normal life with just a tiny tremor and a couple of other symptoms that the family has since realized were connected to the disease. Her mother\u2019s hand tremor developed around the time that Schlapman\u2019s first husband died unexpectedly of a heart attack, so the family was quick to brush it off as stress from the grief. But, then her mother began to notice that her left arm stopped swinging while she was on her regular three-and-a-half-mile walks with her best friend. Looking back at her childhood, Schlapman recalled her mother having night terrors. \u201cAnd now we know that that is the REM sleep disorder that comes along with Parkinson’s.\u201d Schlapman was in the studio with the band when she received a phone call from her mother who told her that she thought she had Parkinson\u2019s. \u201cI was like, what? Parkinson’s?” \u201cAnd she said, \u2018Yeah, I’ve been studying it a lot.\u2019\u201d Bramlett went to a neurologist and her suspicions were confirmed. \u201cHer diagnosis at first, while it was surprising to all of us, really didn’t affect her life that much,\u201d Schlapman said. \u201cBut as it has progressed in the last seven to eight years, it’s really reached another level, and her life is much, much different.\u201d Worsening over time Schlapman said her mother was just like her prior to her diagnosis, \u201cJust go, go, go all the time, working a lot, and taking care of everybody around her \u2026 Now the disease has really, really changed her life. It kind of takes over everything at this point, as this disease does as it progresses,\u201d Schlampan said. Bramlett pushes hard in physical therapy and is always working diligently to manage her symptoms. In addition to physical therapy, she tries to adhere to a healthy diet and keep up with exercise. \u201cShe\u2019s on Parkinson’s medications, which help manage the symptoms,\u201d said Schlapman. \u201cHer case, though, is very progressed. She’s very much down the road with Parkinson’s. So there’s a lot of things that dictate her day, which she has no control over. But her spirit is just amazing.\u201d The importance of early diagnosis and communication Witnessing Parkinson\u2019s firsthand has taught Schlapman the importance of catching symptoms early. \u201cI think early detection is so important because there are things that you can do physically to kind of put off the effects or the progression of the disease,\u201d she said. To spread awareness, Schlapman has partnered with AbbVie\u2019s \u201cChanging the Tune of Parkinson’s Disease\u2019 campaign to help empower both patients and caregivers to advocate for themselves and explore treatment options that meet their specific needs. Since Parkinson\u2019s has many different symptoms, it is important to bring any new health changes to your healthcare provider (HCP). \u201cAnd that’s why this campaign encourages people to just talk to their doctors \u2026 there is no symptom that you shouldn’t mention,\u201d she said. Schlampan has seen how modern treatments, like her mother\u2019s medication that helps with tremors, can make a meaningful difference. But the first step in managing symptoms is to clue your HCP in. \u201cIt\u2019s never too early and it’s never too late to talk to your doctor about new symptoms and whether they are connected to Parkinson\u2019s \u2026 Because Parkinson’s is so individualized, doctors are able to formulate a plan that’s just as perfect as possible for that particular person living with the disease.\u201d Finding balance as a caregiver In addition to being a daughter, Schlapman is a musician, a chef, a wife and a mother of two. Juggling everything and caring for her mother, she admitted, is definitely a lot. But she\u2019s grateful to be able to be so involved with her mom\u2019s care. \u201cLike women everywhere, mamas everywhere, we have a lot going on. We spin a lot of plates in the air, and it’s just what we do. God made us multitaskers and so we try to take the best care of ourselves as we can while taking care of everybody else,\u201d she said. Schlampan thinks it\u2019s important for caregivers to find ways to care for themselves. Personally, she keeps up with her passion of cooking, often creating meals for her mother and having her assist in the kitchen. Schlapman\u2019s brother and sister are also very hands-on, and the siblings work together to make sure they stay on top of their mom\u2019s symptoms and treatment protocols. \u201cI think it’s so important for caregivers to have someone that they can share everything with, that they can download on,\u201d Schlapman said. She stressed that there is definitely a level of grief involved in caregiving because the person you’re taking care of is not the person you’ve known forever; they\u2019ve changed. \u201cAnd so I realized that I grieve who I’ve always known my mother to be, but yet I celebrate that she’s still here and such a little fighter,\u201d she said. A big thing that has helped Schlapman is being in constant communication with her siblings. \u201cIf mama has a bad day and we’re with her, we call each other and say: \u2018This is what happened today.\u2019 \u2018This was really hard.\u2019 \u2018This was really sad.\u2019 \u2018This was really frustrating.\u2019 Schlapman wants caregivers to remind themselves that they\u2019re human and it\u2019s OK to feel frustration: \u201cIf a caregiver out there feels frustrated, they shouldn’t feel alone because it happens to everybody,\u201d she said. Schlapman recognizes the struggles of the sandwich generation as they care<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Kimberly](\"https:\/\/www.healthywomen.org\/media-library\/kimberly-and-her-mom-baking.jpg?id=67088029&width=980\")
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