Transcript
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Welcome to I'm Not Dead Yet with Judy and Travis, a podcast about living an extraordinary life with extraordinary circumstances.
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Welcome to the.
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I'm your co-host, Travis Robinson.
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I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at age 35 in 2014.
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And I'm your other co-host, judy Yarris.
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My husband, sandy, had Parkinson's disease for 18 years and I was his care partner.
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Today's episode we're talking about the building blocks that I have put together to restore my old man life.
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Hey Judy, how are you?
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I'm good Travis, I'm good now that I'm talking to you.
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I've had a stressful car day car repair day and I know anyone listening to this that owns a vehicle can relate to stuff that happens with your car being very stressful.
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My car is relatively new and kind of just stopped on me, so it was not easy getting the tow and it wasted my whole day and it was a pain in the ass.
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Let's face it.
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That's what it was.
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But I want to really talk to you today and see how you're doing.
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Last week we let our audience know that your house was destroyed in the Eaton Canyon fire here in Los Angeles and I know that that presented a lot of challenges for you and Sarah.
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And how do you feel about that now?
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Um, now it is a process.
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You know, I don't think my mind has changed.
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Pain in the ass, yep, but it is just a pain in the ass and I have suffered a lot of those.
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Yep, you have Travis.
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I mean, I think this is a big one and you know, uprooting your life and having to go into temporary quarters until you can start rebuilding and getting some normalcy, and we know, with stress and Parkinson's that's a terrible combination.
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So I'm curious have your symptoms been much worse?
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What's been going on with your PD?
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Not much as I was afraid of.
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They were really bad the night we evacuated and the next 24 hours or so, but after that they've been okay.
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So it was really like that initial shock and the stress of having to get out, get the poodles, get the cats, get a few belongings not much and being safe, you know.
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So I can understand where those first 48 hours were probably the worst for you.
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But I do know you well, travis, and I'm pretty sure that you've gone into what I always call the survival mode and I have another way of saying that it would be the fuck you mode that you're not going to let this fire take you down.
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And you know this is who you are as a person that when these crazy challenges happen whether it's something as dramatic as this or maybe something a little less dramatic, but still impacting you in a very big way you seem to come through with still a sense of positivity and resilience.
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That, I think, is really.
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I mean, I admire you and I know other people that know you admire how you've been able to sound like you are intact, and whether you are or not, we don't know it.
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If you're not, you put up a good front.
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Thank you.
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Yeah, it's mostly true.
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I have weathered a few storms in my day and this one will be just like the others.
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Yeah, I see that that's how you're approaching it.
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You're not giving it more.
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You're not giving it more.
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You're not giving it more, and I guess that's it.
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You're not giving it more attention.
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Well, you're certainly giving it more attention, but you're not allowing it to penetrate, to take you down.
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Maybe that's the word.
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What's the word?
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It's like it won't penetrate my bubble of how I feel about myself or about my life.
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That's really good to hear my life.
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That's really good to hear, just on the periphery, okay.
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So that's wonderful to hear, travis, that you have found a way to make that happen, and I wish I could do the same thing when I'm I mean, certainly today I did not hold it together very well and had one or two meltdowns along the way throughout the day, and I think it was just a combination of all the stress from the last couple of weeks and seeing how everything you know you losing your house, other friends losing their homes, people being upended, you know, and friends and family and it's just.
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It affects us all, you know, those of us that love the people that we are close to as a community we are impacted to.
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As a community, we are impacted and anyone I've talked to, everyone's been feeling tired and exhausted and they don't know why they feel so tired or why they're so exhausted.
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And I think it's this emotional crap that we've been holding on to for the last couple of weeks of just trying to process what has happened and how we're feeling and what can we do, and there isn't really enough we can do.
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You know, what can we do.
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Are we doing it?
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Are we not doing it?
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I mean, I think there's so many things that come into play with this and I just feel like, you know, we all do what we can to make the best of a situation that is so far from perfect and so far from what we would like it to be.
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But, with that said, we know that life is not a permanent state and that we're changing all the time, and so this is just another change in another moment in time that we have to adapt to and know that it's for now, it's not forever, right, yeah, and that's what we have to get, to have to get to that place.
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I was reminded of that today during my meltdown.
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This is just a moment, it's not going to last forever.
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And you know and it's hard, I have to say for myself, I I tell people this all the time it's hard for me to practice what I preach.
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You know it's not so easy.
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I mean, I did some meditation and I still was a basket case.
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So I think that it's just kind of what happens.
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It's we have to be accepting and know that, for the moment, if we're safe now and right now, you and I are safe and I think that's really good and we're able to talk about these things and there's a lot of exciting stuff for us.
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It's 2025.
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And you and I have made a decision to do something a little different with the I'm Not Dead podcast.
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I'm Not Dead Yet podcast that's what we have to say, and I want to let our listeners know that we're now going to be part of Parkinson's Community, los Angeles, pcla, and I think it's exciting.
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Yeah, we're very excited about this.
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And, just for those of you that know us well no-transcript yes, we'll still have those words that are on the no-fly zone, but even with that, we will find that.
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You know, we can edit them and we can put bleeps wherever we need to, so that it won't offend anyone, and we'll give a heads up with it.
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But I think it's exciting for us.
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A heads up with it, but I think it's exciting for us.
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So I'm really looking forward to this year and we're planning to have some new guests on the show and I think that's going to be very exciting for us and guest hosts as well.
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So that'll be kind of cool.
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Yes, we will reveal that soon.
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We're having a guest co-host join us.
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Yeah, I think it's going to be kind of a fun year for us.
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We're going to change it up a little bit and see where it all flies, and this will be fun.
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So that's so much about that.
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And for those of you that don't know what PCLA is, or Parkinson's Community Los Angeles, we will.
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You can go to the website, pclaorg.
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Check it out.
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I suggest waiting about two weeks.
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We're launching a new site and that's going to be exciting, so we can promote it then and you'll see what we've been doing what we're up to and I think you'll find it kind of fun and different.
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Yes, and you won't be able to keep adventure with me.
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So I was thinking, travis, you know, if you could come up with maybe three lessons you have learned from this experience in the last two weeks, or three takeaways that you would want to give to people with PD.
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What would they be?
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Maybe there's more than three, but you know I hate putting you on the spot with this, but you know are there a couple things that come to mind for you.
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Yes, like always, be prepared, be prepared, have your shit together and really don't put it off, because having DD is no excuse, and the fire did not give a damn that I had had symptoms that day.
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It came anyway, so that is my number one thing.
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So what does that look like?
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Like get your shit together.
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So what is the shit we're talking about?
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Is it your PD shit, your medications, your assistive devices?
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What kind of stuff are you talking about?
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Your plan should know what you're going to take and be ready to leave your house in 10 minutes.
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Wow, full stop.
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That's pretty intense.
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I mean 10 minutes, I'm thinking about that.
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To have that ready would be pretty intense.
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I mean 10 minutes, I'm thinking about that.
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To have that ready would be pretty hard.
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What you get if the sheriff comes to evacuate.
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You is 10 minutes and if you can carry it out, then it does not go.
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Right, right, that's amazing.
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Okay, I think we should think about that, like what are the things in 10 minutes?
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That's a pretty big ask to come up with that, yeah.
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And I also want to recognize that it's impossible to save everything, so you've got to do triage and be selective.
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This process is so much easier if you think about it calmly.
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And this plan when you're already fucked.
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I think that makes a lot of sense.
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To do that, you know, to plan it when you aren't in a rush, when you don't have the emergency, but get ready.
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Think about how you'd get out of your house if you have kids.
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You know what would you take for your kids.
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You know what do you take for your kids.
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You know what do you take for your pets.
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A lot of people left without dog food or cat food or you know all the sometimes there were medicines that animals need and people left without that.
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People left without their own meds, you know.
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So I think having that emergency backup bag with meds in there is probably a great idea.
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And then right, and then turn around and you just have to be cognizant that every few months you have to rotate those medications, right?
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Yes, you know, that's a good one.
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I like that.
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But I like this idea of being methodical, taking your time and doing it.
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When?
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Why didn't I grab this?
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Oh shit, I should have grabbed that.
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Yeah, it's hard, and I think to different people the valuables are different things.
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People, the valuables are different things.
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You know, it could be a photo or a picture that a child made, or an item that a kid made, and for someone else it can be a priceless object that they maybe bought on a trip as something to remember that trip by.
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So I think there's so many different ways to view it as to what is valuable to you to things that are practical and things that are valuable and things that are sentimental.
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You don't want to leave without all of one category or you'll find yourself with a bunch of precious keepsakes and no spare underwear.
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Is there anything else you can think of Travis?
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Those were two really good ones.
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To me that's pretty good.
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We don't have to go any further with it.
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Keep a list of all your possessions, even if it's walk through your house, videotaping on your phone.
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You will have much better chance of remembering everything.
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That's another really good suggestion.
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I like that, even just taking photographs of each room, of certain things.
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If you have valuables, certainly with artwork things like that, it could be very helpful.
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I could see that would be a good one.
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Yes, well, that's good.
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Well, that's good.
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Well, travis, I know that you want to continue to share your story.
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You want to continue to be there for people that have PD to see how you get through the challenges and to offer support for them in the best way possible, and I know I'm truly appreciative that you are doing this, and I'm sure there's many of our listeners feel the same way, and I'm just glad to see that we can do it.
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We can still get together and talk and share your story.
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Yes, Okay, that's a round thing.
