JANUARY HIGHLIGHTS (and lowdowns)
- The first part of the month was marked by extreme poverty of movement around the house; the month ended with more fluidity.
- Voice was strong and clear 80% of the time.
- Sleep tended to follow this pattern: to bed at 02:00 for an hour, 90 minutes awake, back to sleep until 09:15, short nap at noon, hour to three hour nap at 13:00, repeat.
- In the main, clear headed and cheerful.
- Post-nap zombidity wasn’t an issue much of the time, but when it hit, it hit hard.
- Nose, bladder, and drool were all relatively well-behaved, and got better as time progressed.
- Monday 13 – Morning walk impossible. Evening walk featured thirty seconds of energized pericardium and fluid walking that felt like where I should be all the time.
- Towards the end of the month the right arm tremor shrank to a pulse and the usual tightness relaxed somewhat.
- This has been my experience of late (from Recovering from Parkinson’s by Janice Hadlock) – “Again, of the four types of PD, people with Type I PD are the ones most likely to manifest the Parkinson’s personality. When they recover, they instantly drop much of that personality and become, in their own startled words, ‘back to my real self!’ This ‘real self’ turns out to be much less fearful, less inhibited, and less critical of others or self. It is more comfortable being around others and is, in turn, a lot easier to be around. For example, one recovered patient told me that she suddenly found herself talking un-self-consciously with her co-workers. She always walked every day with a group of them during the lunch break. She had always been careful to listen to each person in turn and then, when she deemed it her turn, she would say something that logically followed the previous speaker. After recovering, she suddenly found herself just saying whatever she felt like, and not worrying about whose turn it was. She was amazed at how much less work it was to be part of a conversation. Her contributions still made sense and were logical, but they were effortless. She wasn’t expending any energy ‘keeping track.’ She was able to laugh at how labored her previous socializing had been.”
- Towards month’s end I was able to drink a beverage down to the last drop without using a straw.
- State of mind definitely affects quality of movement.
- For the last few days I was able to do five or six laps on Via Costutuente which is slightly inclined and paved with stones (and moderately trafficked by pedestrians) where my usual was two or three. A few of those laps were basically automatic.
- Getting out of bed, while still a challenge, continues to become easier.