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Tuesday 25 February 2014

And the heat goes on

Temperatures here are well above normal. The high today was 85F (normal mid - 70's). I walked 6 miles yesterday and again today and my tremor is all but gone - about 1 on a scale of 10. It has to be the heat and the exercise along with the ability to do nothing without feeling an impending sense of doom. No files to work on. No phone calls. No land titles office. Etc. Just plain old relaxation.

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My wife just brought me a Toll House ice cream thing. S'cuse me while I eat the pie.

Saturday 22 February 2014

Victory is mine thus sayeth the blogger

I made it! 3.5 miles without incident. Today I will repeat and every day until we leave. There is no doubt in my mind that exercise and heat (25-29C) quell the symptoms of PD. I shudder at the fact I will be returning in 2 weeks to temperatures that hover around zero. I hate the idea that I shall be hit by Parkinson's / Raynaud's once again. However, such is my life so I will enjoy the heat while it lasts and the respite from my tremor that accompanies the inevitable sunburn.

Sunburn: evolution's way of telling us to stay inside. I must not be highly evolved. I know I burn but I always fail to use sunblock and end with the sheen of a tomato. It has turned to a tan now. I am the George Hamilton IV of the parkinson's tribe.

But, I am symptom free and feeling good. To quote Yogi, "It ain't the heat; it's the humility."

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Fly me to the moon

After this trip, I think I will hate flying. I am not afraid of flying, although it always amazes me when that raging, metallic leviathan suddenly launches itself into the air. These days I appreciate the airplane is a time machine. In 6 hours it takes me from winter into summer. Yesterday, it was -15C, today it is +29C. However, now that PD is progressing, the trip here (South Beach, FLA) has become an unappreciated weight around my fantasy of Eden.

Careless Driving: It all started with a wet snowfall and a cab ride to the airport at 3:15AM. Our driver was carefully negotiating the slippery streets when suddenly some ass blew through a red light, horn blaring, and aiming for the rear door on the side where my wife was sitting. If it hadn't been for the skill and caution of our driver, my wife would have been seriously injured. We avoided disaster by one or two inches.

Airports: I think these were built as instruments of torture. Long waits, even in the Nexus lines. Having to remove my shoes at one airport but not at another. I mean really, is it terribly necessary to have me, an obviously unassuming, harmless old gent take off my belt! And what's up with being told to arrive at the airport early and then ending up sitting for a couple of hours until the boarding hour.

Airplanes: Long lineups for boarding. Delays. No leg room in crowded quarters. Broken televisions. No food, at least none that should be consumed by humans. And don't get me started about exiting the plane; can't they open the door a little quicker!

All these things combined, turned my body into a quivering mass of carbon-based gelatine thanks to PD.

Today, I have returned to normal and even managed a 2 mile walk in the sun before feeling a little uneasy and returning home. Tomorrow I will try for three.

Flying is a mystery, best described as hours of boredom; perhaps interspersed with a few seconds of terror now and then; interesting, necessary and fast, but definitely not friendly to suffers of PD.

A pox on the industry.

Sunday 16 February 2014

Utopia is some place elsewhere

We leave bright and early tomorrow for the land of milk and honey and "itsy bitsy teeny weeny" bathing suits. The extended forecast shows temperatures for the duration of our stay above 25C except for one or two days of 21C (maybe I should take a parka to wear, like the locals do). It will be great to get away from the snow and cold for a few weeks and even coming home won't be terrible; the extended forecast for our city shows temperatures hovering around 0C upon our return. Positively balmy!!

I am hoping the warmth will be an asset because the cold is anything but. I now suffer from Raynaud's phenomonon - cold extremities to the point of pain (I believe I have mentioned this before but I hadn't a name for it.) When I go outside, even the warmest mitts ("garbo's" for those in the know) can't keep a few of my fingers from turning white. I wondered if Raynaud's was associated with PD, so I searched and I found the following statistics:

Raynaud's phenomenon is discoloration of the fingers, toes, and occasionally other areas). A report dated January, 29, 2014: 15,873 people who had parkinson's disease were studied. Among them, 7 (0.04%) had Raynaud's Phenomenon.


Females with both PD and RP made up 54.55% of the people and males 45.45%

Nobody below age 50 suffered from both, but between ages 50 - 59 20% suffered from both and over age 60, 80% of participants had both.

To read more about the study, click on the link above, but it appears there may be a small chance of a link between parkinson's and raynauds, especially past age 60, a group in which I belong. The hits just keep on coming, don't they! What's next? I hope there will be some relief in the heat.

I read in an earlier entry that I considered myself optimistic. I must have been having a good day. I certainly try to be optimistic but, in truth, I fall somewhere between optimism and pessimism on the outlook scale, leaning toward optimism.

I also wrote about suicide. I must have been having an OK day. It is not a subject I like to dwell on, unless it helps others, or I find something odd but interesting about the subject. For example, some one told me that at one time in England, attempted suicide was considered a crime punishable by death!

That's all I got for today and I must go and take my medication which I should have taken 2 hours ago.

Saturday 8 February 2014

Should I walk or should I ride?

It's official. I now look my age. People have always told me I look 10 or so years less than my actual age. This little slice of pleasure came to a screeching halt when I went to buy a bus pass for my adult son and the clerk brought me a Senior's Pass!!! Doesn't matter, the glare from between the few strands remaining on my head had already whispered to me, "You are not what you once were". Being diagnosed with PD at the appropriate age was just the topping on the cake.

To ward off age and my dark passenger, Parkinson's, I used to walk, 2 - 3 miles daily, but no more. Now I am housebound, that being my choice. We have had the coldest winter I can remember, with daily highs in the -20C to -30C range for weeks on end. One day, when the windchill was included, the temperature felt like -51C. And the snow! After the snow plow went by it left a ridge of snow that is above my head in some places! So now I stay inside and ride my stationary bike. It's still great exercise, but it doesn't help me lose weight. I have put on a couple of more pounds. I prefer walking, but only crazy people walk in this weather.

All that is about to change.

Shortly we leave for 3 weeks in Miami Beach. This will be our 13th visit and as a result, I know the area very well and last year I used my phone's GPS to calculate the distance of the different walks I take (little did I know the roaming charges added up to $2,000.00, which my carrier fortunately reduced to $200.00). In South Beach, as usual, I will walk 3 miles, 2x a day. That should give PD a little hit. Shoot, I might even run a few hundred meters. Falling on sand shouldn't be too big a deal. I might even lose the excess weight

We have always been lucky with South Beach weather, with only a few cool days in total. It is often above 25C and I love the heat. Every year I return with my skin an unwanted, but nice, pre-cancerous shade of brown. So for 3 weeks, it will be summer. Unfortunately we will return to winter but in April, it should be warmer, close to zero. My fingers are crossed.

I leave you with a quote from that famous Yankee, Yogi Berra:

I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.

Monday 3 February 2014

Finding meaning through suffering

On a blog to which I subscribe, a newly diagnosed PWP, wrote that he felt he had only 2 years left before his legs would betray him and after that, he was going to consider suicide.

First of all, chances are his legs will be fine for a lot more than 2 years as evidenced by responses by other PWP, one of whom has had the condition for 16 years, the other for 6 years and both are still physically active.

Secondly, more than one person dies in a suicide.

Most people contemplate suicide at least once in their lives. But I suspect those who carry through, do so with a pain those who don't can never understand. PD is not that kind of pain. We are survivors who have found a lifeboat in the form of miracle drugs that control our symptoms. It took Ali about 30 years before he lost the use of his legs. Those of us in our 60's will be dead before 30 years run out and those with early onset PD will probably experience a cure in their lifetime. Michael J. Fox, diagnosed at 29, is still going strong after 20 years. I hope the person who is contemplating killing himself either has just suffered a momentary loss of clarity or, if he is suffering from a depression, gets professional help. All I can tell him is he is not alone and not to let the diagnosis get him down.

A friend of mine sent me a pamphlet that contained this quote from Helen Keller

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through the experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved".

While I don't consider myself to be too much of a "sufferer", I did find that following diagnosis, I became more of a humanitarian and certainly far more optimistic. I really can't explain myself. Things are just different - better. Perhaps my soul has been strengthened.

Maybe I am a "sufferer". Obviously I would be better off without the disease, but I am beginning to understand Michael J. when he said PD has made him a better person.