Lydia Arana, 79, is a soft-spoken woman, living with Parkinson’s disease but not willing to let it keep her down. The Matawan resident was diagnosed with the degenerative neurological disease in 2007 and has lived with fluctuating levels of intense tremors for years, but last year she started the [...]
For about a year, Sandy Gordon of Colts Neck had labored breathing when performing tasks such as climbing stairs, and just thought it was part of the aging process. When her breathing didn’t improve, she visited Kenneth D. Barofsky, MD, board-certified internal medicine physician and on staff at CentraState and [...]
Rock Steady Boxing can help patients improve balance, strength, and agility. Ken Springer goes to the gym twice every week to box his enemy. But he’s not fighting against any ordinary opponent—this one is a degenerative movement disorder that causes a deterioration of motor skills, balance, speech, and sensory function. [...]
Gina Barnett was living in extreme pain. Her pelvic area felt so heavy that she could barely walk, forcing the 52-year-old Freehold resident to give up exercise, singing, and just about every other activity she loved. “I was constantly uncomfortable,” says Gina, describing unbearable pressure and pain that extended [...]
Life has been compared to a carousel—sometimes up, sometimes down, and sometimes round and round. No one understands that better than Mary Jean Sehnal, who suffered from vertigo (the sensation of spinning), weakness, and other problems that impaired her balance for the past 10 years. [...]
Before the program, Mark Herman was falling frequently. “He was very unsteady,” his wife, Barbara, recalls. “Frankly, it was very frightening.” Mark, a Jackson resident, had been living with Parkinson’s disease for the past four years, and his now 72-year-old body was having difficulty performing everyday tasks. His recurrent falls were [...]
For decades, Dr. Kohlberg had exercised regularly on a treadmill so he could stay fit for weekly tennis matches and annual ski trips with fellow CentraState physicians. But over the past year, worsening pain in his right knee prevented him from enjoying the sports he loved. Eventually, the pain [...]
As a longtime player and manager in the Monmouth county senior softball league, Emil “coach” Jennette is always evaluating his teammates and opponents. He recalls a game when he closely studied outfielder Bobby Duncan as he ran the bases during a game. “I was watching how he performed, and [...]
Though Jersey City native Thomas Ryan, 58, had been living with diabetes for 30 years, he was faced with yet another health-related obstacle when he had to undergo amputation of four of the toes on his left foot at a hospital in Hoboken. A common side effect of diabetes, poor [...]
Though Howell resident Heather Cooper had once been an active, outgoing person, her symptoms from early onset Parkinson’s disease began five years ago and got progressively worse. “I’d always been very adventurous and athletic and had even worked as a yoga instructor and at a ski resort managing a lodge, [...]
