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Parkinson’s: An Athlete’s Journey is for athletes navigating Parkinson’s, the coaches and clinicians who train them, and anyone who wants real-world strategies for performance and longevity. Hosted by Eric Von Frohlich and Todd Vogt, the show focuses on tactical takeaways: how to train, recover, manage symptoms, and stay consistent when the rules keep changing. Expect honest conversations, tested routines, and guest experts who go deeper on what works.
Todd Vogt (00:00)
okay.
Eric Von Frohlich (00:00)
Wait a second,
is that blue sky I see?
Todd Vogt (00:03)
Yeah, it's really sunny. It's been weather's been great in Oregon. I don't know what it's been like in California, thing might move her
Eric Von Frohlich (00:07)
Well the afternoons
are great. The mornings are a little cloudy. We got this thing called
Todd Vogt (00:10)
yeah. We
get a the June gloom or whatever, is that what they call in California? We get that in Oregon too. I kinda like it. Like it's nice for when you're outside, 'cause by about maybe one o'clock or noon or eleven o'clock it's sunny and then yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (00:12)
Exactly.
Exactly.
You have yeah, you can walk the dog and do everything you want to do in the morning and not get cooked. We moved to same town, different neighborhood. So super cool. We ⁓ in the midst of to Alaska and going to NASCAR, we decided that a move would be an appropriate time and
Todd Vogt (00:27)
Where'd you move to?
Okay. That's cool.
Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (00:44)
You know, this is about four weeks after I had my procedure or three weeks and I had complications with that.
Todd Vogt (00:47)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was gonna ask
di wait, wait, did you did you have any complications to that? What what happened what what are the complications if you don't mind saying?
Eric Von Frohlich (00:52)
I did. It's ⁓
the the abrasion was fine and that that all worked and went well, but I woke up with a lot of abdominal pain. And me it made no sense because I didn't have any issues with my with my core previously. And now I had this overwhelming sense of ⁓ like this wave of emotion that
Todd Vogt (00:59)
Okay.
man. Okay.
That's weird. Yeah. Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (01:18)
was kind of between like a muscle cramp and a stabbing pain. And it would go away right away. Like I take a breath and it would go away, but it would come back every or five breaths. So it it was ⁓ really challenging trying to get back to doing anything because they wanted me to take two weeks off of the ablasion, but then unintended
Todd Vogt (01:30)
man.
Okay.
Eric Von Frohlich (01:42)
cost me like another three weeks. So I was out of the gym for five weeks, which you know, as a Parkinson's person, just work for you. So it's ⁓ so I got back to that and then, you know, the dog got fatter and fatter and fatter as a result. And he needed to get back in shape. So we finally moved and got some structure back in our life and the dog the dog was fine and
Todd Vogt (01:47)
Man, that sucks. Yeah.
⁓
Eric Von Frohlich (02:09)
coming together.
Todd Vogt (02:10)
That's good. How you feel how's
your stomach now? How's like abdominal pain now?
Eric Von Frohlich (02:13)
I've gotten used to it, but it's it's draining. It feels like, you know, part of it's Parkinson's, I can tell, because it feels like I'm being pulled forward. and so that forward stoop of your posture is pretty common. But I've been working hard at, you know, building more mobility in my back, in my my abs, and strengthening my back so I can stand up a little straighter. So
Todd Vogt (02:25)
yeah, okay. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (02:39)
It's within normal protocols of what I would be doing anyway, but like working out with sore muscles. There's this constant fatigue that I'm fighting a little annoying. but I'm heading in the right direction. So at least I've learned to work with it now. So that that's that's been exciting.
Todd Vogt (02:46)
Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (02:56)
And the update for for those that were following us, the last time we spoke we had an issue with my dog getting out and getting hit by a car. ⁓ he's on the mend and he's feeling good and he's playing with other dogs now and he's still wearing his cone to stop him from licking his his leg. But that's been
You know, off all in all it's been a good change of pace for him. he's enjoying the new neighborhood and stuff, so that's good.
Todd Vogt (03:24)
Nice. your move, Joe? We moved too actually went to a new house like three quarters of mile away our previous house, which was like in some regards good, in some regards bad. I don't know about you. Like what I mean by that is like we moved like the middle of May. We bought we just like slightly upgraded our place, which is fine. It was great. Our new place is awesome, but like being three quarters of a mile away, we hired movers like one day.
to help with all the like all the big stuff and then I basically myself and Heather moved everything over the course of like two weeks and a hundred like you know, car trips back and forth.
Eric Von Frohlich (03:44)
Right.
Right, which makes you wonder like why you chose just the big stuff at a certain point, right?
Todd Vogt (03:56)
Yeah. Like there's a lot of things that are hard to you we have two Subaru Foresters so makes it easy like stuff, but no, no doubt, absolutely. We fit right in actually. So the Portland starter car is a Subaru Forester, exactly so. But it's like what do you do with a lawnmower for example? It's like all this a awkward stuff, you know, vacuum cleaners, like stuff that you can't put it in a box, you know.
Eric Von Frohlich (04:03)
that is so Portland of you.
Right. Yeah, we had the same problem. A lot of it had to do with purging and getting rid of stuff that or giving stuff or donating stuff or you know, it was definitely overdue. come to appreciate purging on a daily basis as opposed to, every decade when you move.
Todd Vogt (04:22)
I don't know. So finally we're like moved in, set up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Totally. I guess that's a good thing about moving, yeah. I mean we did a lot of that. But y I don't it was kinda fun actually. I don't know. We went to the dump, you know, the waste transfer station as they call it. I've been there before, but it's pretty fun to go there. I don't know if they gotta be one in Newport too. It's essentially like the Multnomah County dump. It's not really a dump, it's basically like an airplane hangar essentially. And there's a giant pile of stuff and every day they just everybody just throws their stuff in there. weigh you your car on the way in and then you go and chuck all your stuff in there.
they forklift it out, I don't know where they put it on like a shipping container that goes to China or like Africa or somewhere, I don't know, whatever it wherever it goes. And then, you know, they weigh your car on the way out and then they charge you based on weight how much, you know. kinda fun. It's like it kinda became like a game a game like with Heather and I, like how much you know, we got a hundred and fifty pounds of stuff we saw tossed today. So Yeah. Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (05:14)
Right.
Right. That's awesome. congratulations on the move. I'm excited. Big changes
in your life. You got a new job, you got a new apartment, you got all this change happening. How are you dealing with that emotionally and and physically?
Todd Vogt (05:41)
not too bad. I mean when I was telling Heather and and some other people is like I mean I'm generally working from like eight thirty AM approximately to five ish, you know. On the road most of the time from like nine until four PM and then like doing like administrative stuff like expense reporting and things like that during the day, but I basically come home at night, you I'm like a working man. Like I exercise is still a really high priority, right, just for my health, right? So
I come home immediately like put my like gear on and you know, it's become routine, you know, like it w which this might be a bigger point, but I come home, put my stuff on, head into the garage. the garage is the only room that hasn't fully decked out, but I've got my workout stuff sort of carved out in there. So point is like I've made it priority. I come home, immediately change gear, put on my either like rowing trowel or bike shorts, hop on the stationary bike or the running machine, lift some weights, like
But, you know, sometimes coming home after like a long day I'm like hungry and tired, but know, I don't think about it. I made it such I don't have to think about it. I just come home, put my gear on and go, you know?
Eric Von Frohlich (06:36)
Well, I got on an erg yesterday for the first time in about three months and it was as painful and as difficult as I ever had, know, experience on an erg. But five hundred meters at a time at a twenty-two stroke rate kind of got me going and ⁓ I didn't do a lot, but I just wanted to break the ice and and not be intimidated by the what used to be an old friend of mine.
Todd Vogt (07:03)
Nice. How did it feel
on your shoulder? your shoulder too. Sweet. That's good.
Eric Von Frohlich (07:04)
Felt fine with my shoulder and my bicep were fine. It was more this
core restriction that you know you really feel tightness in your core when you row. And
Todd Vogt (07:12)
yeah.
Yeah, totally. Yeah, you're all compressed up
there, you know, like yeah, puts you in like all folded up position, right? So
Eric Von Frohlich (07:20)
Yeah, you're like a loaded spring and super challenging to get in a good catch, but I kinda figured it's like everything else. The more exposure I get and the more frequently I do it, the easier it will become and you know, what was seemingly impossible before will become possible again.
Todd Vogt (07:30)
Yeah.
Nice. That's good. That's good. Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (07:41)
So
so that was that was good news. we went to Alaska as as I think you know. ⁓
Todd Vogt (07:47)
Yeah, I saw the pictures.
They look pretty yeah, yeah. How long were we there?
Eric Von Frohlich (07:50)
We were there for f for six days. weather was spectacular. Alaska it was spectacular. It was like partly cloudy, partly sunny. we didn't really get any rain, which was kind of remarkable. But you know, the takeaway was I had a lot of apprehension about whether or not between everything I'd been through this past month.
whether or not I was gonna actually be able to show up and be present and capable to fish. you know, because y without thinking about it, when you're on a boat, there's balance issues, there's nausea issues, there's, know, lots of happening and so you're multitasking galore. there's seemingly an you know, amount of distractions.
Todd Vogt (08:17)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (08:35)
So it was one of those things that I was like, well, do the first day make the most of it. And then I'll take the second day off and go hiking by myself or with Deborah. And then you know, maybe do the third day fish again. And then, know, as I had a a good first day, I was like, you know, life only happens when you say yes. And you need to step up to the challenges that are in front of you instead of
Todd Vogt (08:50)
Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (09:02)
defaulting to diagnosis that we had. so it turned out to be great. Every day I fished. the day started at 4 30 in the morning. The kids were up and like raring to go. We had breakfast by 5 30 and we're on the boat and we fished until like five o'clock in the afternoon. And was all day on the boat, you know,
Todd Vogt (09:23)
Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (09:24)
brown bag lunch, ⁓ fish. There were moments where we'd be, you know, we find a bait ball, which is bait fish that are all balled up together and these eagles would come down and swoop into the bait ball and pull out talons full of fish. And then a whale would breach and you know scoop up the rest of them.
Todd Vogt (09:26)
Okay, that's what I gonna ask, yeah, yeah, exactly. So
Eric Von Frohlich (09:49)
And this would all happen within like twenty to thirty feet of the boat. And it was, picturesque and amazing and you know, sensory overload, but in all the best ways. And it just kind of made me wonder what other things I've missed out on by giving into preconceived notions about what I can handle and what I can't handle.
Todd Vogt (09:54)
Cool.
Eric Von Frohlich (10:11)
this idea of, you know, learned helplessness is something that fear the most about our diagnosis is that you get discouraged so many times with how difficult things are, basic things that you know, like tying your shoes or something like as simple as that, you face a bigger challenge, the default becomes, I don't want to ruin the experience for everyone else. At the same token,
Todd Vogt (10:34)
Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (10:35)
part of the experience that everyone is having is relationship with them. So you need to show up you're falling short. and again that's within reason and within scope. If it was a week earlier and I was feeling as bad as I into this, I might not have had fortitude to step up, but everything kind of aligned and
Todd Vogt (10:41)
Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (10:57)
a really impactful moment that I would want to share with other people that are thinking about changing their plans or putting their life on hold while they get their diagnosis I'm sure you have thoughts on this. So how do you deal with those situations when they come up in your life?
Todd Vogt (11:12)
Yeah,
I think this is one of the central challenges of getting diagnosed with Parkinson's. And I'm sure this happens to people with other chronic illnesses as well. and maybe neurodegenerative diseases are different in that it's a progressive condition in you change your perspective on, you know, well what am I you know am I able to go to this dinner party tonight? Like what happens if midway through the day in the boat my medication runs out? I like, you know, or my
I run out of medication or my medication doesn't work as well. So like it seems like your life like gets as your condition progresses, like your world gets smaller and smaller and smaller, you know. At least that's the fear or the reality or the fear. I don't know. So yeah, how do you deal with that, you know? And yeah, so I think that yeah you self limit like you're saying, right? So
Eric Von Frohlich (11:52)
Yeah.
Todd Vogt (11:53)
I don't
know. And it for me personally, like, I don't know, I always had this thought process before. Like I always try to say yes to things, but Parkinson's like challenges sort of like I don't know, I don't really have too many like personal philosophies, but one of them was like, you know, say yes to things. You know, if somebody asks you to do something or take on a new project, say yes because you never know what might happen, you know. But Parkinson's sh you know, presents a challenge to that sort of philosophy because
Eric Von Frohlich (12:10)
Right.
Todd Vogt (12:14)
It's hard to say yes to a project if, you know, I don't know if I'm gonna have enough energy or time or, you know, my symptoms are gonna allow me to do whatever this is, like Just you know, thinking hypothetically. Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (12:21)
Yeah, and it's not a lack of willingness. You
know, it's it's it's not a lack of willingness. I think sometimes people at a person with Parkinson's and feel like, impacts everything that they do. And you have like a lack of willingness because you have to ask someone to help you do something. And it's, probably the thing we fear the most is is codependency that it kind of creates.
But there are legitimate challenges. Like sometimes putting on my coat is really, really difficult. I mean, more difficult than not putting it on and go and getting cold. So, you know, you look for like workarounds that maybe aren't particularly effective, but they are emotionally more prudent. know, I think that that's what our caretakers and those that live with us have to realize at a certain point is like.
Todd Vogt (12:46)
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Eric Von Frohlich (13:10)
We wanna be full functioning normal people, but we have this thing that's kinda holding us back a little bit. And it's important to recognize that it's a bigger challenge than we may make it seem.
Todd Vogt (13:14)
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean it could be there's a lot of practical things that could roll into this. Like for me, you know, the thing I think about, okay, I'm like going to a party or something like that. Say you're there's like a barbecue at a friend's house, you're like, All right. I'll take medication. My medication lasts for about three hours. It keeps me in an on phase for about three to four hours, depending on the environment, how
it makes me or energetic, you know, that'll burn that'll make it closer to three hours, you So then okay, I I'm thinking to myself, I'll take medication before I go. We're gonna be there about maybe five or six hours, so I need to make sure I need to bring least one more dose, you know, maybe two doses, and then have some Carbodopa Levidopa on the side just to sort of like spike it if I need to. so it requires just a little extra planning, even in this most basic regard, right?
Then you you know, s there's all these other things that sort of come into play which make things more of a challenge than they should be, unfortunately.
Eric Von Frohlich (14:01)
Yeah.
Yeah, that was a big takeaway from the trip, you know, the ability to, deal with the emotions and efforts of moving, even though I didn't do a lot of the moving and my family will support that.
Todd Vogt (14:17)
Yeah.
where exactly in Alaska were you?
Eric Von Frohlich (14:20)
we
were in We flew into Ketchukan from Seattle and then we took a puddle jumper Edward's Island, which is a a called Klawock, which is supposed to be the sound that crows make, 'cause there's a lot of crows there. Although arguably I'd say there's more bald eagles there than there were crows or seagulls in Newport. They were just abundant and amazing and
Todd Vogt (14:23)
Okay.
Eric Von Frohlich (14:45)
in as majestic as you could expect. But was a six hour trip more or less.
Todd Vogt (14:50)
the travel too
because like I was saying before, like travel could be dicey too. It's like you get up earlier, a normally I take my medication, I don't know about you, my first dose around on the day, anywhere from seven to nine o'clock, depending on how what I've got going on, you you know, travel like if you have to be at the airport for example at like a seven AM flight and you're getting there at five thirty, that means like, okay, what do I do about my first dose? And then, you know, it just like everything gets thrown off, you know.
Eric Von Frohlich (15:02)
Right.
Yeah, the routine gets broken, that's for sure. and I'm curious what your thoughts are this has been impacted by work. But the idea of getting up having a checklist of small wins like my breath work, my morning my normal routine, getting on my power plate and doing my power moves and working on my voice and just like those normal things get interrupted.
Todd Vogt (15:25)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (15:37)
And it it's
Todd Vogt (15:37)
Totally, exactly. Yeah, there's no
get up at four you have to do a power plate if you gotta be at the airport at five thirty or whatever, right?
Eric Von Frohlich (15:43)
Exactly. And so, you know, travel on that level, a logistics level. I wasn't feeling great also. So it was one of those things that I was kind of weighing out well, maybe it was a blessing in disguise. But but for and I needed a little extra rest and so I took
skill and a little and understanding on everyone's behalf in dealing with me. Everyone was kind of like hitting my checklist on does he have his double medications and you know, do I need a hand or stuff. So to I was able to fish because I kind of set the parameters that if I was going to do this, essentially the skipper or the the captain of the boat
Todd Vogt (16:12)
Awesome.
Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (16:27)
was gonna have to like basically deal with any of my tackle issues because I don't my eyesight isn't good enough and my dexterity in my fingers isn't good enough to be tying knots and putting on hooks and stuff like that. So there became an expectation know, if they took care of that stuff, I could focus on not falling overboard and I could actually reel in some fish and, you know, make the most of it. And that's exactly what happened. I don't think I ended up putting a piece of on a hook.
even because it just we got in such a good rhythm that know, everyone was catching fish and everyone was working together and everyone was optimistic it just was kind of a an ideal situation. And the kids were without Wi Fi for, hours a day, which was remarkable because they never complained a second. They were just enjoying being outdoors and
Todd Vogt (17:11)
Sweet. Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (17:18)
with the family and making the most of it. So it was a it was a special type of trip. ⁓ I lost ya.
Todd Vogt (17:23)
was gonna say the good thing about your trip that I can appreciate is that
family, you know, they want you to be there so they're you know they're there they're there trying to make it happen like you said in the captain trying to make it happen so which is great. Like I guess that's the nice thing about like family is that they understand the situation but they want you there on the boat with them. So not gonna be annoyed
Eric Von Frohlich (17:31)
Sarah, are you still there?
Todd Vogt (17:39)
you, you know, if you're struggling to be like put your boot on or whatever, I don't having like a the support network, you know, they're yeah, you don't want to be a burden on your family and your support network, but at the same time you recognize how they're willing to accommodate you, you know, and help you out too. I