- The former chief of Emergency Medicine at Thompson Health talks about life with Parkinson's.
Dr. Anthony Geraci relaxes on the deck of his Canandaigua home. Geraci was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2008 at the age of 48. MELODY BURRI/MESSENGER POST MEDIA
Jul. 28, 2016
CANANDAIGUA — For more than two decades, Dr. Anthony Geraci has cared for hundreds of patients in medical crisis. Now his main job, he said, is embracing life and “living well today” while navigating Parkinson’s disease.
Dr. Anthony Geraci, left, bikes with a friend in 2012 to raise money for the Davis Phinney Foundation. PHOTO PROVIDED
His journey has inspired others with Parkinson's, and has prompted a six-day, 411-mile bike ride fundraiser around all 11 Finger Lakes by his daughter, Lis Geraci, and friend, Devan Mizzoni from Aug. 13 through Aug. 19.
Lis Geraci, left, Dr. Anthony Geraci's daughter, and Devan Mizzoni rode around Canandaigua Lake in summer 2014, and were excited to wear their Davis Phinney Foundation cycling kits on the ride. This shot was taken from West Lake Road. They plan to ride around 11 Finger Lakes next month. PHOTO PROVIDED BY LIS GERACIGeraci, the former chief of Emergency Medicine at Thompson Health in Canandaigua, was diagnosed in 2008 at age 48. While he's been living with PD for eight years, he's been unable to work for five years.
“For 25 to 30 years my work was my identity, and all of a sudden it wasn’t there,” said Geraci. “One day I was employed full-time and working about 60 hours a week. The next day I was out on complete disability, and I remained there until six months later when I had to leave my job.”
Almost overnight, the organizer, strategist, problem-solver and lover of schedule and structure was catapulted into a life of consistent unpredictability.
“I’ve had to learn to give up the notion that I’m an important physician to my patients,” he said. “It was a tough, stressful life, but it was so gratifying. All of a sudden that was gone.”
Now on a bad day, Geraci said he can barely get out of bed, and has to pack essential activities into the two or three “good” hours he has that day.
On good days, he enjoys six to eight hours of higher functioning productivity. But even so, when 8:30 p.m. hits, his day is over.
Parkinson’s causes tremor, and the medicine to combat tremor causes involuntary muscle contractions like twitching, or dropping or flinging whatever’s in hand.
Baking is a particular challenge, Geraci laughs, because of the flour that’s inevitably flung on the floor. And because the fine and large motor skills needed to sweep up just aren’t there.
Texting with his daughters is also an adventure, Geraci said. Clumsy typing skills, worsened by tremulous hands and random auto-corrections leads to some entertaining exchanges, including “inappropriately voracious” use of emoticons, he said.
Still, Geraci bakes, texts and paints, and on a good day, drives his car — when his level of dopamine, which sends messages to the brain to control movement and coordination, allows.
Not surprisingly, Geraci describes life with Parkinson’s as “difficult.”
“In so many ways, movement is a sign of life,” said Geraci. “So when your body doesn’t make enough dopamine and you can’t move normally, you and others might start to wonder if indeed you are still alive.”
http://www.victorpost.com/news/20160728/neighborhood-heroes-dr-anthony-geraci-is-at-peace-with-parkinsons
Thursday, July 28, 2016
NEIGHBORHOOD HEROES: Dr. Anthony Geraci is at peace with Parkinson's
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