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Tuesday 29 August 2017

Everything is Relative

I was awakened last night, just after midnight, by a bone curdling cramp in my left foot. I haven't had one that bad for a few years and it came without warning. You know the kind, the kind that grips your foot and tries to turn it up. Probably caused by a time zone change when I flew to BC and I screwed up my medicine schedule. It can only be cured by standing. I did so and sure enough, it receded and I was able to sleep.

Before dozing off, I heard on the radio that North Korea launched another missile over Japan. The interviewer was certain that the regime would eventually toss a big one toward the USA. It would be a mistake. North Korea would cease to exist. There is always hope for the future that mutually assured destruction will keep us in peace.

Oh, did I tell you I had a foot cramp last night?

From Locksley Hall (Tennyson 1809 -1892)

For I dipped into the future, far as human eye could see
Saw the vision of the world, all the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales;
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue;
Far along the world-wide whisper of the south wind rushing warm,
With the standards of the peoples plunging through the thunder-storm;
Till the war drum throbbed no longer, and the battle flags were furled
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.
There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapped in universal law.

By the way, I had a cramp in my foot last night.

Monday 21 August 2017

Nightmares are the shadows of the dreamer's reality

My wife was sleeping when I got into bed. I lay down, fortunately facing away from her. I started to drift off but was awakened by a sudden straight arm punch. I was about to throw a second jab when I woke up and the punch became a familiar muscle contraction. Had I been facing my wife, she would have been my first knock out of my boxing career.

She slept through the whole event.

This is the first time that PD has caused a violent incident. Usually my PD dreams are quite vivid and some can be rather creepy, interesting but almost spine-tingling.

What causes these dreams. I don't know. I have yet to research the cause, but my action in throwing a punch probably comes from my boxing practice. The club founder gave me a heavy bag. I set it up and trained for an hour. The words "jab, cross, etc" have become a normal part of my vocabulary. I say them over and over as I hit the bag. I don't know why, but boxing is good for me. It makes me feel loose, free from PD and for the few minutes I devote to it daily will help to slow down my PD. Maybe. Maybe not. How can boxing be a boon to PWP?

We all have a lazy brain

The Chicago Tribune (Dec 21, 2016) contains a short op-ed with one explanation as to why boxing is good for PWP.

Trying a brand-new type of exercise taxes your brain because it forces it to figure out how to do something for the first time. This can help with Parkinson's, the neurological disease affecting movement.

Exercises — such as boxing, which most people haven't attempted — are effective for Parkinson's patients, he said.

"The brain is a lazy organ," Schmidt* explained. "It has figured out a way to do the things you do routinely with the lowest possible energy."

So when you try something new, it requires the brain to find a new, high-energy maneuver. With boxing, the brain would have to work its way toward the jabs, hooks and uppercuts.

Rather simplistic, but it sounds plausible. I have made it part of my exercise regime, hoping it will tax my mind. I have a long way to go before my brain has entrenched the actions that accompany "jab, cross, etc". In the meantime, I will practise and practise some more. Hell, I will even practise in my sleep!

* Dr. Pete Schmidt from the National Parkinson Foundation

Friday 18 August 2017

Pugilism! Who knew?

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
I don't know if Thoreau's quote is applicable here, I am not that much (if any) of a scholar. However, when I read this quote, it brought to mind something my boxing guru said to me, "We keep repeating the combination in order to create new pathways in our brain. You will be stronger for it."

I have never dwelled on my PD, probably because (touch wood) the drugs work so well on me that outwardly, I am symptom free, but at the boxing club that I joined, I see people in far worse shape than I, and my diagnosis was long before some of their diagnoses.

In spite of their diagnoses, each person is not consumed by PD; rather, they see the good things in their lives as they happily bash away at the heavy bag. I was surprised to realize, my life became brighter as I got further into the sport.

Yes, I called it a "sport". At one time, I thought of boxing as two brutes try to destroy each other. Primitive. Man, was I wrong. The punching combinations are challenging. Saying "jab, cross, hook, hook, uppercut" is easy to say, but try doing that over and over! After, about 10 sessions, I am actually able to do it about 5 times in a row before my brain turns off. I can understand now why my father, a former champion in the Canadian army long ago, would sit in his chair in front of the TV and bob and weave as if he were one of the pugilists on the screen.

It is going to take me awhile before the pathways are cemented into my consciousness, but on the way, I have met some fabulous people who have reinforced some aspect of my future, I have discovered I am not alone, and I have a new sport to add to my catalogue of righteousness.

To my instructor, who was the founder of the local chapter of "Rock Steady", thanks for the insight and the chance to box my way to a freer life.

After that catharsis, I think Thoreau's comment is bang on ("bang"? Do you get it?)

Thursday 17 August 2017

Weekly Statistics


August 10 -17




Total Pageviews 84,208




Graph of most popular countries among blog viewers

EntryPageviews
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United Arab Emirates
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Denmark
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Wednesday 16 August 2017

All right, all right, all right, let's go

Early August,2017 - reports describe a small study of a drug that may benefit PwP. I don't know if we should get our hopes up, but the drug Exenatide, normally used to treat diabetes, may be the one we have been waiting for; a drug that slows the progress of PB. If true, it would be a dream come true but we all know our dreams can be elusive so here is the reality of the situation
  1. Current drugs mask the symptoms of PD, but those pesky little brain cells keep on dying.
  2. Currently, our futures don't look good because there ain't no cure for PD.
  3. At University College London, 62 people were given either the drug, exenatide, or a placebo. After 48 weeks, guess what?
  4. The placebo people continued to decline, but
  5. people given the drug remained stable.
  6. Three months after the research stopped, those who had been taking exenatide were still better off than the placebo group.
  7. Things are looking up. As one researcher, Professor Foltynie said,"

    "This is the first clinical trial in actual patients with Parkinson's where there has been anything like this size of effect.

    "It gives us confidence exenatide is not just masking symptoms, it's doing something to the underlying disease. "We have to be excited and encouraged, but also cautious as we need to replicate these findings."

  8. Calm yourself, the study was too small to ensure accurate outcomes. There needs to be far more subjects taking the drug for a longer period before there can be any assurance the drug can slow down or even stop the progress of our dark passenger
  9. Don't despair, although the study had its limitations, the positive result of this small group warrants further study, i.e., bigger group, longer period. Personally, I am cautiously optimistic; however
  10. Dr Brian Fiske, from the The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, said:
    "The results from the exenatide studies justify continued testing, but clinicians and patients are urged not to add exenatide to their regimens until more is known about their safety and impact on Parkinson's."

Okay, we get it. Might be good news; might not. Just do us one favour, get on with it. Find out if the drug is effective or ineffective or even harmful. We PwP have gone through too many trials and tribulations with respect to possible cures, clinical or natural, that only make some people, purveyors of "snake oil", rich.

Exenatide may be the magic bullet so, figure it out. Good or Bad News!??

Thursday 10 August 2017

MEA CULPA

A thousand apologies to those people (other than the scammers) who left comments. I missed them all and will respond to them all over the next 3 weeks.

Let's start with my Laidlaw student who is a published author and when I taught her, she was a dreamer. I would see her sometimes, walking to or from school. She had a thoughtful smile and her eyes were sort of glazed over. She looked lost, her thoughts in another world. Turns out she was developing the stories she later successfully wrote about. She was fascinating then and is fascinating now. Can you see it in her comments? Her creativity is there. Thanks for commenting M. It means a lot.

NEXT DAY - Seems I lack the energy to reply to all so I hope you read this and take it as a personal apology. I have read them all and thanks for commenting.

Tuesday 8 August 2017

Stardate August 6/17 about10 degrees south of insanity

Captain's log

  1. It is hot today on this planet called "Sanity". Very hot. Hot enough that there are none of those biting insects the locals refer to as "mosquitoes". Nasty little creatures, known to suck blood. Seems they avoid heat. I have not seen one yet but I understand they travel through the air, in swarms" only not when it is hot.
  2. No mosquitoes! be a good time for an EcA, which I remind you means "Extra cottageihicular Activity." Why did my spell check underline "cottageihiculr"? It's a word! Only the truly sane in Sanity knows its meaning.
  3. I am prone to take these colourful sticks, called "Nordic Walking Poles" known in Sanity to balance the body on a venture known as walking. Why would anyone walk? I ask myself?
  4. The first peoples in Sanity drive odd gasoline eating creatures called cars, semi-proficient vehicles that are a semi-sufficient mode of transportation but their odour is putrid, or so I have been told. You see I have PD which has robbed me of the operations of a nose. Drive or walk? Not a difficult decision. Walking is the choice of most in Sanity so I will follow suit. My choice is to walk like most of the residents in Sanity.

Upright
Uptight
Naked ape is out of sight
Starts his day
When he walks away
Feelin' good
But with legs of wood
Beware
Trouble's there
This I know
But I've got to go
Obsessed yes
This will be a test
Shall I turn around
Go to safer ground
Can't stop
I begin to drop
Slow down; Don't frown
People will see you falling down
I walk so slow
To a grassy knoll
Want to sleep
But I'm in too deep
Make them them think that I have no care
But I see many people stare
Must sit and rest
Yes, I think that's for the best
Call my daughter and she
Agrees to pickup me
Takes me back to the safe place that I left
This walking gig will be my death
I would tell you now and you'd agree
Walking scared the hell out of me
But this affair will set me free
No more walking
It is just pure insanity

That about sums it up. I went insane, a state of affairs caused by an obsession to continue on walking. I see now why the people on this planet prefer cars. Near the end of my walk, aided by my poles, I was moving at glacial speed. I was in trouble and I could hear people whispering about me. Hence, I sat myself on the grass and sent out a signal of distress. It was picked up by my daughter who took me home. Now I fear, I am too afraid to try to walk more than a nanobyte of a mile.

Look it up.

Tuesday 1 August 2017

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” ― Albert Einstein

I have found something else that I am no longer good at - kayaking.  I can still paddle and control the direction of the boat, it's the rest of the stuff I have lost.

This past weekend, I decided to go kayaking on my own, Thank goodness my wife came along or I would not have been able to enter or exit the boat. Readers, even PWP, are thinking, "What's so difficult about getting into and out of a boat"? Last year, I could do it easily. This year, I tried the correct entering technique and ended up falling unceremoniously back into the kayak, fortunately bum first. Equally fortunate, there was nobody around to witness what was undoubtedly an amusing amateur display.

Depending on your point of view, the story gets better,or perhaps worse, thanks to PD.

The Voyage

I told my wife, who took the car, I would meet her at Ralph Beach, a few miles away. I hadn't been to Ralph Beach in at least a decade, maybe two. I paddled fairly easily, but not smoothly due to a slight tremor and what once had been a 10 minute trip took double the time. The shoreline had changed, as nature is wont to do, and I missed the beach completely. I was getting tired and had difficulty paddling and frankly, I was lost, when a faint voice, away in the distance behind me, called over the water, "Aren't you going to turn in?" Somehow, PD had(has) left my hearing alone, while attacking the rest of my body in this skirmish, all caused by my desire, my stupid desire, to relive the past. I was able to find my wife and paddle to the shore at Ralph Beach. But then the problems arose.

How to Disembark

I paddled to a stop in a line parallel with the shore and with one leg over the side, foot in the water, I attempted to use the opposite side of the boat as leverage to sit up and exit the kayak . Instead, I was so unsteady, I toppled back and ended on my butt in the boat. Now, we all understand that for every action there is a reaction. In my case, the reaction managed to push the boat back into deeper water. Using the paddle, I "poled" back to shore and after two more unsuccessfull attempts, I bowed to my wife's pleas to help me and at last, with her help, I stood beside the kayak swaying (sort of). I had to admit to myself that PD had robbed me of my strength and agility. I was momentarily pondering this conclusion when PD attacked with ferocity. I was pulled backwards by some mysterious force. Four backward steps later, I lost all balance and collapsed into two feet of water. With a shout, my wife asked if she could help as I flashed around in the lake. I was having trouble getting upright due to my life jacket insisting on doing its job by keeping me on my back in order to keep my head above water. With my wife's assistance, I got on to drier land, soaked, head to foot, and we still had to get the kayak up a small, gravelled hill to the car.

The Samaritans

I was tired and disoriented (PWP will know the feeling), but I was determined to get the boat off the beach. A simple task you ask? No, a nearly impossible one. I took the stern of the boat; my wife took the bow and we (and by "we", I mean "she") began to go up the hill. I was shaking and stutter-stepping and not making any progress, when a man and woman started down the hill toward us. They noticed my struggles and offered help, which I gratefully accepted, explaining that I had (have) PD. The man took my place at the stern and the woman took my hand. She helped me up the hill and into the car. Her husband helped my wife load the kayak. Two strangers helping two strangers! It was almost biblical.

Denounment

The trip home was uneventful. The only conversation was me telling my wife, and her disputing, that I would never kayak again.

I won't.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that, as she gently held my hand and took me to the car, the lady told me her father had had PD and that he had described the condition as, "Your brain tells the rest of the body to do something and the body refuses."

He got that right ma'am. He sure got that right.