Retired Carson City teacher talks Parkinson's, his wife's cancer and their mission to help others

Following a serious car accident in 2008 and two years later the discovery of a genetic predisposition for young onset Parkinson’s Disease, a career Carson High School teacher may have had to retire from the school district, but he has never stopped gaining and offering knowledge through his lifelong passion as an educator.

“The car accident stuff healed but I was still going downhill. Then in 2011 I got the diagnosis,” said Brian Reedy. “In a way the diagnosis was a relief because we finally knew what was wrong.”

Reedy led a 20-year career as an educator. Earning his graduate degree in Alaska, he began teaching in Montana and then in Nevada for 17 years.

He taught freshman and sophomore English, media, video production and photography at Carson High School. Mr. Reedy, as a member of the state board team, also helped to write the statewide teaching standards for photography.

Tyler Bourns, a student of Mr. Reedy and class of 2007 Carson High School graduate, owns and operates the successful video production company Bourns Productions. "I owe a lot to him, more than he could ever know," Bourns said about Reedy. "Everything I've witnessed him do, be it in teaching or in his personal life has been to help others."

"The unique kind of impact he has made on myself and the students around me is something so rare. I wouldn't have had the success I've experienced in my career without him," Bourns said.

“I knew what I wanted from these kids,” Reedy said. “I had this great program and I didn’t want to let it go.” He stuck to teaching as long as he could, but as the symptoms of Parkinson’s took hold it became increasingly difficult.

His wife Lily helped as much as she could and student aides as well, but after a while it was just too much.

“I still couldn’t keep up with my workload to teach how I wanted to teach,” he said. “It was very depressing. I loved teaching with the deepest passion. The only reason I left is because I wasn’t able to continue.”

Reedy calls the first three years after his retirement in 2014 “The dark years.”

“We started to go to conferences to learn what this was about,” he said. "I kept hearing all of these bad things about Parkinson’s and that is what stuck with me.”

Reedy was able to pull himself out of this slump, however, with help from his wife Lily and his physical therapist Nina Vogel, from Carson Tahoe Physical Therapy.

“I didn’t know how to approach exercise for Parkinson’s,” Reedy said.

When he began physical therapy with Nina Vogel, he said “I couldn’t even do a pushup.” But with the encouragement and training from Vogel, a lot of sweat and a year's time, Reedy can now do more than 25 pushups during a workout.

“It completely turned me around. Thats when everything changed,” he said. “She connected me to new ways to use my body, get my strength back and challenge Parkinson’s.”

Challenging Parkinson’s is what Reedy is doing. Beyond that, he is continuing his passion of education by sharing his story and helping those with Parkinson’s, their friends and families to cope with the disease while showing them ways to challenge it with the same vigor.

Lily and Brian are co-directors of the Care Partner Support Group in Carson City. A support group for family and friends of those living with Parkinson’s Disease and cancer. “She has this automatic sense of true compassion and understanding,” Reedy said. “I can’t be who I am without her...She’s my rock, and I’m the roll,” he said with a chuckle.

Lily continues to fight her own battles with adversity. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. The cancer is now in remission and with surgery, chemotherapy treatments, and extended radiation therapy and medication her chances of recurrence have been reduced to 9 percent.

Between the experiences of Lily and Brian, they have a wealth of information and support to offer those affected by Parkinson’s Disease and cancer. Visit their website for more information. www.careliving4all.com

Care Living 4 All will host two local events, one at Carson Tahoe Health Monday, March 12 in Carson City and the other Tuesday, March 13 at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. The guest speaker for the events is Lauren Paglisotti, Community Engagement Officer for the Michael J. Fox Foundation For Parkinson’s Research. Go here for more information.

The couple are also ambassadors for the David Phinney Foundation and Brian will be speaking about Parkinson’s and locally available resources. “This event is most important to me,” he said. Reedy hopes to reach those affected by Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease because. “The information we have about how the benefits of the right kinds of exercise can help slow the progression of the disease. According to Reedy, this is very important, because focused exercise is very affective and can make the symptoms much more manageable. “I did not find this out until I was already retired,” he said. “With this information, I may have been able to stay in the classroom longer.”

Reedy is currently training his dog Dempsey as a service dog to assist in various ways such as maintaining balance and forward momentum while walking, preventing falls, as well as provided quiet and genuine companionship and alleviating anxiety and depression. Dempsey the Border Collie’s training has been progressing nicely and Reedy maintains an informative blog showing his progression. “Over the past few months I’ve been amazed at what he’s learned, how far we’ve come as a team and how much I count on him for my quality of life,” he said.

Brian and Lily have also been selected by the Parkinson’s Foundation and the Michael J Fox Foundation to go to the 2018 Parkinson’s Policy Forum in Washington DC. Brian has been selected to be the team leader for the state of Nevada. Go here, for Carson Now’s coverage of this upcoming event.

About the Parkinson’s Foundation
The Parkinson’s Foundation makes life better for people with Parkinson’s disease by improving care and advancing research toward a cure. In everything we do, we build on the energy, experience and passion of our global Parkinson’s community. For more information, visit www.parkinson.org or call (800) 4PD-INFO (473-4636).

About The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research
As the world's largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson's research, The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to accelerating a cure for Parkinson's disease and improved therapies for those living with the condition today. The Foundation pursues its goals through an aggressively funded, highly targeted research program coupled with active global engagement of scientists, Parkinson's patients, business leaders, clinical trial participants, donors and volunteers. In addition to funding more than $800 million in research to date, the Foundation has fundamentally altered the trajectory of progress toward a cure.

Operating at the hub of worldwide Parkinson's research, the Foundation forges groundbreaking collaborations with industry leaders, academic scientists and government research funders; increases the flow of participants into Parkinson's disease clinical trials with its online tool, Fox Trial Finder; promotes Parkinson's awareness through high-profile advocacy, events and outreach; and coordinates the grassroots involvement of thousands of Team Fox members around the world.

About Parkinson’s Disease
Affecting an estimated 1 million Americans and 10 million worldwide, Parkinson’s disease is the second-most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s and is the 14th-leading cause of death in the United States. It is associated with a progressive loss of motor control (e.g., shaking or tremor at rest and lack of facial expression), as well as non-motor symptoms (e.g., depression and anxiety). There is no cure for Parkinson’s and 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in the United States alone.