If like a crab...................

For the satirical rogue says here that old men have gray beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams—all which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward..

This is one of my favourite quotes from Hamlet. Wouldn't it be nice if we could go backward, reset ourselves like a computer. I would go back 4 years and try to find a way to avoid the quirks of PD. Unfortunately that's never going to happen.

Doesn't mean I can't go backward!

It happened while I was standing in line at IKEA - the great equalizer store. I was having a good day and felt relatively normal, when some unseen force, some malevolent demon, made me feel like I was going to fall over backward. I was able to catch myself and I think nobody, except my wife, noticed. I have since had the same feeling twice more - once on the stairs. Fortunately, no harm resulted. But, I can see it in my future - unless I am one of the lucky slow progressers or Dr. Oz comes up with a cure.

In the meantime, I shall try to live with it for, as Jon Bon Jovi once opined:

Success is falling nine times and getting up ten.

Like he knows!

Every thing we hear is not a fact; it is merely someone's opinion.....or is it?

STRANGE FACTS ABOUT PARKINSON'S DISEASE

1. Many people in the Pacific island of Guam have developed Parkinson's Disease, due to feasting on flying foxes, a species of bat that can be as big as six feet across. This is because the bats eat cycad seeds which contain a potent neurotoxin.

2. For reasons unknown, Bulgarian Gypsies appear to be almost immune to developing Parkinson's Disease. All other Bulgarians are ten times more likely to get Parkinson's Disease.

   Why the Bulgarian Gypsies rarely get Parkinson's Disease has not been explained.

   Most of the Bulgarian Gypsies suffer from dire poverty and malnutrition, and have a much lower life expectancy. Even in recent years there have been episodes of starvation amongst them. Despite living in Europe their income and diet are closer to that of a third world country.

   When you look at where Parkinson's Disease is most and least common, it appears to be a rich nations illness. Ironically, it appears that somebody has to be healthy enough in order to develop it. In most of the poorest of countries and peoples, Parkinson's Disease is hardly known. However, they usually suffer from something else instead.

3. I read some where that Ethiopia has the lowest incidence of Parkinsons. Their average life expectancy is 44 years. I wonder if this is the same for the gypsies?? So are they dying from other causes before they can get it?

4. In 1875, Henri Huchard had a patient that had all of the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease who was only three years old.

5. The Parsi, a Zorastrian community in Bombay, India have almost the world's highest prevalence of Parkinson's Disease due to the poisonng effects of a ritual in which they burn Aspand seeds in order to rid their children of the Evil Eye - a sickness transmitted by someone who is envious, jealous, or covetous.

6. Although L-dopa is widely used to raise L-dopa levels, no other common substance reduces L-dopa formation more than L-dopa itself.

7. Anti-cholinergics, used to treat Parkinson's Disease, are found in nature as Deadly Nightshade, a plant that is so poisonous that just one leaf could kill an adult.

8. Although it is claimed that Parkinson's Disease becomes more likely with age, amongst the very oldest of people, those between 110 and 120 years old, Parkinson's Disease is virtually unknown.

9. L-dopa, in seed form, was being used in India to treat the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease over 6000 years ago.

10. James Parkinson, who Parkinson's Disease was named after, never knew that Parkinson's Disease was called Parkinson's Disease.

11. There are two films of Adolf Hitler's last public appearance, one that was shown in which he displayed no symptoms of Parkinson's Disease, and another that was not shown in which he was displaying the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease.

And now for THE GOOD. Is he a seer or just good television?

Check this out Doctor Oz's prediction

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY - WELL JUST THE BAD & THE UGLY

DISTURBING FACTS ABOUT PD IN CANADA

• Nearly 100,000 Canadians have Parkinson's disease with approximately 5,500 new cases diagnosed each year in Canada.

• There are 11,000 British Columbians suffering with Parkinson's disease, and 1 million in the United States. These numbers are expected to double by 2016.

• In Canada and the United States, one person dies every hour from complications of Parkinson's and one person is diagnosed with Parkinson's every nine minutes.

• According to the Brain Repair Centre at Dalhousie University, brain disease and disorders (like Parkinson's disease) will surpass cancer and heart disease as the leading cause of death and disability to Canadians by 2040 yet at present, there is no national strategy to address this growing concern.

• The present-day impact of brain disease and disorders like Parkinson's cannot be overstated. They are devastating for entire families; they result in an enormous loss of productivity; and they cost the Canadian health care system more than $30 billion annually.

• Parkinson's is one of the most pervasive neurological diseases - to date researchers and clinicians have found no way to stop, slow or prevent Parkinson's.

• 40% of patients develop Parkinson's before the age of 60. Many are diagnosed in their 20's, 30's, and 40's - prime years for building their careers and/or raising young children.

• Canadian Movement Disorder specialists estimate the cost of medication for a typical Canadian with Parkinson's to be $1,000 per month.

• The proper care for a person with Parkinson's disease includes: family physician; neurologist or movement disorder specialist; Parkinson's nurse specialist; pharmacist; occupational therapist; physiotherapist; social worker/psychologist; speech and language pathologist; and dietician.

• Canadians with Parkinson's rely on universal access to Home Care supports and services to achieve maximum quality of life. Sadly, current access varies significantly from region to region, city to city, and town to town.

• According to a 2003 economic burden document developed by Health Canada, much more information is needed to develop a true understanding of the impact of Parkinson's disease including:

Epidemiology
Medical information
Burden for individuals
Burden for families/caregivers

At my age, linoleum scares me.

“Almost nothing need be said when you have eyes.”
― Tarjei Vesaas

"You've got a little freckle in your eye. But, don't worry, it's very small. Nothing to worry about but I think I should refer you to a specialist. It will take months before he will see you, but in the meantime, don't worry," my optometrist told me and the end of an eye exam.

Why would I worry? It's only a freckle and I am covered in freckles.

A couple of days later, I google "freckle in the eye". This is what I discovered.

Choriodal nevi (freckle in the eye) are benign, however, your eye doctor is trained to watch closely for the development of a choroidal melanoma, a tumor found in the eye. In rare cases, the nevus must be biopsied and examined for melanoma (cancer) cells. Choroidal melanomas are malignant tumors and must be treated.

Whoa! Melanoma means cancer, right? The big "C", right!

PD is an invasion. Scary. Can be real scary, to be honest, but it is a firecracker compared to the CANCER nuke. Now that's the definition of scary. No matter how often I read that the freckle rarely is cancerous, I still freaked about it for a few weeks; but, as a month or two passed, I settled down. Then it was time to see the specialist. How would I react when he tells me I have cancer?

At the conclusion of several tests, he took me down to for an ultrasound of the eyeball, but the technician had gone home and he couldn't find a necessary piece of equipment.

"Well," he said, "Can't do it today. Make an appointment for 3 months and we'll see if that sucker has attached itself to something else". He helped me out of the chair and left the room.

What! Another 3 months! Attach to something else! Sounds like cancer to me! 3 months to go.......

Let's make a long story short. At my next appointment, I had the ultrasound and was told I had a mole in my eye. Very tiny and it had not grown since I was last seen.

"Call my nurse and make an appointment for 6 months. We have an accurate measurement now and we'll see how it goes, but don't worry"

Worry? Strangely, I am not worrying. I've got a mole in my eye. It has no effect on my eyesight and I am not the cancer-getting type (touch wood). I am, and will remain, optimistic. After all, I am dealing quite nicely with my PD. In fact, I don't think about PD or the mole much at all. I am relaxed. So relaxed, I forgot to make the appointment, which I will do tomorrow, Wednesday at the latest. Afterall, I have 6 months to go, right?.

“What day is it?"
"It's today," squeaked Piglet.
"My favorite day," said Pooh.”

The Other Ridiculist

ridiculous (rĭ-dĭk′yə-ləs) adj something that is unbelievable in some way shape or form, an event worthy of memory

Parkinson's is a smarmy, chameleon-like, condition. It kind of sneaks up on you after it has destroyed 80% of your dopamine cells. Its squinty-eyed, superior attitude surfaces and you are hit with the first of its symptoms. Initially you feel a slight weakness in one hand, then one finger seems to shake when you are pointing at something and finally you don't understand why your hand seems to have a mind of its own as PD gains strength. You have been waylaid by a persistent, tactical bomb. It is ridiculously cruel in its maneuvering.

Checklist..... In the early stages it foreshadows what you can expect:

• a desert like mouth that is unaffected by water. A couple of weeks later you suffer from too much saliva.
• Cramps such as you have never experienced before - rigid leg, twisting muscle, feet turning up and inward. The pain is excruciating but you can get almost immediate relief by standing.
• Hand at rest. Can't have that. Hand starts its jig....but wait! You can stop the tremor by doing something using that hand, like squeezing a small nerf ball.
• Prescription - have some chicken soup. That can't help! Can't hurt. OK, I will try.... but..... the problem becomes trying to get the soup from bowl to mouth without shaking it off of the spoon.
• You like to talk. But your voice begins to disappear and people are constantly saying "Pardon?", so you try to speak louder but you can't sustain it.
• Even if you could be heard, you don't talk because while you know what you want to say, your brain is not receiving the signals and you can't find the words in your mental dictionary. The problem is solved by becoming a mute.
• You take medicine to control the symptoms but you have trouble swallowing them. You get them down now but what will happen in the future.
• What future? You try to remain optimistic but there are signs, signs, everywhere a sign, promising a future then blowin' your mind. It just won't show you the way. The future is a mystery wrapped in a secret that it keeps to itself and only lets you know you might get better at times, but you're not going to get well.
  
• PD, the Snidely Whiplash of diseases.

Hope - A person or thing in which we place our expectation.

For those of you who may have missed it, the Michale J. Fox Foundation sent this to their email list - yesterday, I think.

Just in time for Parkinson's Awareness Month, news breaks that a drug that could stop or slow Parkinson’s disease (PD) is advancing in clinical testing.

The drug isradipine is proceeding to Phase III testing, the last step before regulatory approval. With a $23 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, researchers will test if isradipine has an effect on PD progression. Previous studies funded by The Michael J. Fox Foundation showed drugs in the same class, calcium channel blockers, were associated with lower incidence of PD. When recruitment for this study begins later this year, it will be the most advanced, current trial of a disease-modifying therapy for PD

I don't know if it is reasonable to have hope that this new drug will solve my problems. I think it is better expect a bad outcome rather than hope for a good one. That way I cannot be disappointed, I like the way I view my situation now - PD? No big deal. Drugs are keeping me normal (with a few exceptions) and I will probably die before PD takes over completely and if, by some miracle, a "cure" is found, I shall rejoice with the rest of the PwP. Until then I can laugh at my problems, not because I find them to be funny, but because laughter is an opiate.