<h1>A discourse on ladybugs and balance</h1>

Raise your hand if you saw the movie "Papillon", with Paul Newman. Great movie! Remember the scene when Papillon is put in solitary confinement and is bitten by a vampire bat? Did it leave you feeling squeamish? Well, that's nothing! We have been invaded by ladybugs. They are not the friendly ladybugs that stay hidden under the leaves; rather, they are hell-bound, vampire, attack machines. Kamikazes, they are, as they end up squashed when their mission has been completed.

Now, don't get me wrong; their bite is inconsequential. That is not the issue. The problem is their bite is sudden and disturbing to this PWP. The surprise of being bitten and the reaction of swatting the demon bug causes me to stumble. My balance, already precarious, is rocked and I am in danger of falling. For example, today I mowed the lawn and I was bending over, adding gas, when one of at them nipped my neck causing me to stumble forward onto the mower. No damage done, except I had an audience of two passing by and could hear them whispering "what's with him?" I quickly downed my medication and, after a few minutes, I continued mowing.

This isn't really about vicious alien lady bugs, it is about me and others in the same condition. In the descriptions of the 5 stages of PD, have I hit stage 3 yet?

Let's do a quick overview of PD for those who have just tuned in:

• It is a progressive debilitating movement or more severely "an incurable, degenerative brain disease".
• It affects 1-2% of people over 65 but there is a possibility of early onset. For example, Michael Fox was 29 when diagnosed.
• Symptoms include slow movements, tremors, rigidity, speech problems and instability. There are others, but these are the most talked about.
• As mentioned, practitioners have developed a simple table outlining the 5 stages of PD.
• Not everyone agrees with this method and more extensive descriptions have been authored.

I will stick to the simple table and in particular, the first three stages.

1. Stage one is the mildest form wherein tremors and other related problems are usually found on one side of he body.
2. Stage two is the moderate stage. Symptoms are bilateral. Muscles stiffen and movement difficulties occur. Balance should not be a prominent issue.
3. Going from 2 - 3 can take months or even years.
4. Stage three symptoms resemble stage 2 but the PWP now has difficulties with balance and reflexes. Slowness is a complication, falls are more common but the victim is still able to live independently.

So where am I? Let's see

• tremors - one side only
• some rigidity and stiff muscles
• slowing down
• some bother with balance

Unfortunately by this description of the stages, I am in late 2 stage or early stage 3. When a tiny nip from a lady bug can cause me to lose balance well, I must be__________(you fill in the adjectival phrase). I am confident however, that through exercise I will not graduate to the next level no matter what. I promise myself to stay where I am.

By the way.... things may not be as disastrous as they appear. When Papillon is bitten by the vampire bat, the movie shows his wound - two little holes where the bat bit. The problem is, vampire bats do not have fangs and therefore cannot make two perfect blood-draining holes; rather, they make tiny cuts in the victim's skin and bathe the cuts with saliva that contains an ant-coagulant. The blood flows freely and the bat dines.

Some analogy, isn't it? I just had to mention those fiendish ladybugs.