by Hew Dalrymple

Created on: April 01, 2009

LIVING WITH PARKINSON'S

From the first encounter my Parkinson's was an insidious dis-eases. I was
fortunate in meeting a neurologist who was both confident with his diagnosis and positive with the choice of medication. I was eased into the full dose over 5 or 6 months, and found the first 10 years weren't too bad. That's why it's called the honeymoon period. After that life became more of a challenge as my body functions became erratic.

As I write now my hands have become heavy so as typing is difficult and my legs are refusing to leaver my but from its sudden discomfort. I know that this is intermittent, due to the lowest dose of l dopa taken before and the change over to my second dose for the morning. In less than an hour I will be firing again. I have been determined to write a positive approach to living with this condition, and that is better achieved when the meds are working. There is, in this advanced stage, a fine line between not enough and too much; between freezing up and dyskinesia (uncontrollable movement) Writing by hand is unproductive as I can't now read the tiny spider scrawls. This makes note taking - preparation for what I need to tell you near
impossible (on the positive side brain stimulation in memorising detail helps fight the possibility of dementia)

I'm 63 now, Parkinson's dis-ease has had me for 20 years and they have not been easy. Sometimes, when 'frozen' and unable to do what I intended to do at the time; or after falling for the third time in a morning; or wrestling with a nighttime horror program which prevents sleep; or having to avoid a larger serving of roast turkey 'cause I know that my blood protein level will be too high by the time my next meds are due, I try hard not to listen to my mind saying how bad it is. Cause our minds will only think the worst if allow free reign.

Let's get together and find out how to be better managers of this our personal life.

The truth is that a incurable degenerate dis-ease has us (note my use of
hyphen for it is not a death sentence, just a new way to run your life) And I rather think that Parkinson's has me because it fits better into the big picture of where we stand as individuals, but we'll come to that soon. Once diagnosed and the new life restrictions and limits on freedom become clear, we will save ourselves a good deal of suffering by just accepting for it is as it is. Life has chosen to live itself through us in the guise of Parkinson's, rather than another condition. But the ego mind

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