March 23/16

My Parkinson’s has been acting strangely again, at least strangely for me.  I have been taking my pills on time, no part of my body feels in any way unwell, but I have still experienced a loss of balance and poor walking.  For example, I take my first pill of the day at 7:00 am, I go back to bed for about an hour – for the pills to work – then get up, have breakfast and go, to the Community Centre for a work-out.  In the weight-room I do all the regular stuff; treadmill, stationary bicycle, stretches on the mat and then some weights with no problem.  My reward to all this activity is usually a stop at Tim Hortons for a coffee and a plain donut (I’m trying to gain a bit of weight.) and I am still feeling ok.

At 11:00 am I have my second set of pills and still feel well.  Today I worked for a short while on a project in the workshop and suddenly felt a severe loss of balance.  I left the room and went upstairs hanging on to the walls and door frames.  Jan escorted me up to our spare bedroom where I lay down and rested for a half hour or so.  When I got up I felt normal again and am continuing on with my day.

My suspicion is that at least sometimes going four hours between pills is a bit too long.  The new pills take time to start working and during this period my body reverts back to some Parkinson’s symptoms.  It is also possible when the pill period comes not too long after a meal (i.e. 7:00 pm) that protein consumed also slows down the pill’s usefulness.  I’ll discuss this with my doctor at my next appointment in a few weeks.  

I believe that I have mentioned my reading several books concerning “end of life” situations and problems with the loss of mental ability.  At 87, I don’t have forever to get things done, so I have paid for a burial agreement, which for me will be a cremation.  One of the items in the list of services and prices is the cost of the urn for the ashes.  Two friends do pottery and ceramics and my first thought was to see if either of them would like to make an urn.  My second thought, as I like and need projects to work on, was why not make a mahogany one myself.  I did some research and visited a funeral home to see wooden urns and their size and I have started making one in the workshop.  It is just a box, but I am trying to make it very carefully.  Is all of this morbid or economical or just cheap?

 

Mar.24:  Usually mornings are good, but this morning I got up and shuffled and stumbled around for most of an hour.  Fortunately things straightened out as I had a dental appointment at 10:00 this morning.  Late this afternoon I had another loss of balance – and lay down again for half an hour.  What with old age, Parkinson’s and having all my teeth removed over the last few months plus getting used to trying to eat with false teeth I don’t always feel very joyous.  (Avoid any or all of the above if possible.)