Brandiwyn馃幎, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.
La Bene Vita
You Are Welcome Here Life is good. Let's share it.
New Year, New Strategy For 2026, I launched a weekly topic rotation designed to help me stay d i s c i p l i n e d while ensuring that you, the reader, always know what to expect. Unfortunately, I have yet to acquire a million followers and gain official WDC "influencer" status, and I often find myself seduced by whimsy. Thus, my blogging strategy continues to evolve.
So, What Can I Expect?
I'm glad you asked. For now, until whimsy strikes again, here's what you can expect (updated March 2026):
Weekly Theme Posts Music & music education The art and business of writing Owning & managing a small business Science & technology Parkinson's disease, type 1 diabetes, and other medical topics
Personal News & Updates Health news Family, work and leisure
The Occasional Rant
Although I try to post rants at "What the Fork?" (and you should, too!)
Newly Written Works
When I check off completed writing goals, I'll share the fruits of those labors, if applicable.
Weekly Goals & Progress
I'll establish work and writing goals every Monday and touch base throughout the week.
Ah, DBS. I am well aware of it thanks to my employer. Even though I work in the IT world of med tech, there are still lots of opportunities to learn the basics if things like DBS. We'll see if I can get back to that kind of extracurricular activity anytime soon.
PD research is very well funded, so I'm sure opportunities are there. I have a piano student, Lily. She's 16, but she was 5 when her mom enrolled her, so I've been her teacher more than a decade. Her mom is a doctor, and Lily has decided she wants to study neurology. She knows about my diagnosis - all my kiddos do, so they understand why my voice doesn't work sometimes, why I can't play the instruments I used to, why I drop everything to take meds, etc. So she was super excited to tell me that when she went to Neurology Summer Camp (!!!!!!!!!!), she got to watch a DBS procedure on a Parkinson's patient, live. (!!!!!!!!) This was probably two years ago, so she was 14 or 15 at the time.
For those who don't know, DBS = Deep Brain Stimulation. Until very recently, the procedure could only be performed while the patient is awake. They screw your head into a halo that holds your head still, then implant an electrode in your brain. Some patients require two implants (one for each side, two separate surgeries), and either way, you have to have yet another surgery where they implant the battery in your chest. Sounds like fun, amiright?
In case you're wondering, my MDS said today that I'm the PERFECT CANDIDATE for DBS because I respond so well to levodopa. I'm like.......... thank you? The good news is, there's an option where they knock you out now.
Brandiwyn馃幎 Cool! Yeah, a PhD in Neurobiology. I'm a research scientist / data scientist, worked in a lab at a research institute. Very niche, I know. I'm actually trying (and failing) to break out of the academic research trap. Unless you're a tenured professor, it's a very poor career choice. And, turns out, not terribly useful in the real world. Who knew?
But yeah, I really did enjoy the subject and the research. I'd like to go in a more clinical direction so I can actually help people with diseases like Parkinson's. Especially when I read first hand accounts like yours and Carol St. Ann 20yrs (06-26).
薛头头螑- That's awesome, and I'm very interested in your project. I speak science and data analysis, lol. My degree was chemical engineering. Did you earn a degree in Neurobiology? What do you do professionally?
Carol St. Ann 20yrs (06-26) - I'm sorry to hear that. I was diagnosed four years ago, but misdiagnosed with Essential Tremor three years before that, and I'd had a mild tremor for a few years at that point. So I estimate I've had symptoms for ten years. Please let me know if you have questions, any time.
Vocally, I started to slip under pitch. Now, I can look back and realize my breathing was getting shallower. My advice is to keep singing as much as possible, and add breathing exercises to your daily routine. I used my voice less and less because it didn't sound good anymore, which was depressing, but by the time I was diagnosed with laryngeal dystonia and prescribed Botox treatments, I had also developed vocal fold atrophy.
Did the neurologist who diagnosed you do a UPDRS evaluation on you? What tests or symptoms did they identify to support the diagnosis? Are you doing anything to treat it yet?
And if you're allergic to exercise like I am, GET OVER IT, pronto. Exercise is the only thing proven to slow or stop progression. If your symptoms are mild now, exercise is how you can keep it that way. 30 minutes, 5x per week, elevated heart rate. If you are allergic, I wouldn't mind an exercise accountability partner. I've been lax over the winter. And by lax, I mean lazy.
Michelle, I've recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's and am only starting my journey. I am a singer, and my voice issue plus a faint, very faint morning internal tremor is what sent me to the doctor for more than my yearly physical.
That is good news! 8 is a great score. I actually know quite a bit about Parkinson's from my studies in Neurobiology. I even did a project where I created a data model to predict a patient's UPDRS using vocal metrics from noninvasive home recordings. Since, as you said, it's primary a motor disorder and the vocal chords are a muscle. How about that for a coincidence!
(The model didn't actually work THAT well, but a good concept.)
Storm Machine - no, because ironically, we don't teach left-handed lessons. Both hands are required to play all the instruments so we just start training the muscles to do their respective jobs right from the start. The only mention of left-handedness in the blog I think is Taylor Swift's bio. But because it's Taylor Swift, that page gets a lot of traffic.
I have no idea if Jim Carrey is left handed. Definitely haven't blogged about that either. Why do so many left hand queries end up in your blog? Are you the left hand of music?
Should we blog about lefty music lessons to lean into it?
Yesterday, I had my six-month followup with my Movement Disorders Specialist (MDS), neurology nurse practitioner, Jessica. She appreciates my tech savvy, and I feel more like a collaborator than a patient with her.
What is Parkinson's Disease?
PD is an incurable, progressive, neurodegenerative movement disorder caused by the death of the brain cells that make dopamine. Since dopamine is required to execute muscle movement, the disease is neurological, but it manifests in the failu... [Read more]
Keith and I binged all 8 episodes of 56 Days on Prime Video over the weekend.
On the plus side, the storytelling was gripping. We wanted to watch more episodes on Saturday, bedtime be damned, but there were enough episodes remaining to convince our practical side to wait. The key driver of tension is not actually whodunnit so much as... who died? Sooo many red herrings, twists and reveals in that department.
I also liked the way the story follows the lives of both the suspects and th... [Read more]
...because it's the day we celebrate the end of February!
Almost as if my whole body recognizes the achievement, I had a kick-ass night of sleep last night.
If you've been here before, you've surely noticed I've been using my blog to keep track of my progress against goals. Even when I blog about something else, I close each post with a goals update. It's just a good place to document daily and weekly successes for future reference (and they should be documented ... [Read more]
This is an excellent read: . I'm calling the genre "Contemporary Gothic" because I love a good oxymoron.
On a related note, , you may have met your match in the procrastination department. (You read that correctly: it's definitely a gauntlet.)
I told you all a couple weeks ago that my voice was back. I didn't know it at the time, but I meant it was starting to come back . It's been coming and going in the way that summer and winter in Ohio come and go duri... [Read more]
, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.
and gain official WDC "influencer" status, and I often find myself seduced by whimsy. Thus, my blogging strategy continues to evolve.
Music & music education
