Chapter 11 - A Sleep Filled Day
Just as I began this chapter at 8:45am she called me on the CB radio. For the last hour or so she had been on her right side in bed and her right arm ached but she was unable to move her shoulder for relief. I helped her get out of bed to untangle herself. Deciding to give her right side a rest she toppled back into bed on her left side but with her head at the bottom; her solution to not being able to roll over in bed. I have tried to roll her from one side to the other only to have her feel "twisted" and that requires getting out of bed & in again to "untwist".
Yesterday she slept from 7am till a little after 11am, then again for an hour from 3pm. She had no meds until 2pm & that only a half dose. At 8pm a full dose. Consequently, when awake she was very stiff & slow. At 4pm she showered with some difficulty. She feels the need to exercise, is only able to complete arm exercises shown on a video tape, leg exercises are beyond her. Yet she walks reasonably well. The last time she visited our neighbour in hospital (poor thing has been there for some 2 months, unable to walk) she asked to borrow a small peddling machine. So next door I went, borrowed the machine from the neighbour's partner, adjusted the thing for minimal drag only to find she is unable to make the pedals turn. She felt she may be able to peddle backwards, so I turned the machine around (the pedals rotate in one direction only) and she was able to make one hesitant jerky rotation. Utter failure.
We dined with Al Fresco on our rear patio on fried chicken pieces dusted with curry then I went next door for awhile to discuss, over a glass of red, the idiotic results of a Washington Post poll of USERS that has determined that about 50% of the US population believe that the Islamic world is becoming more violent. Talk about the emperor lacking clothes!!! We also resolved a few of the world's problems.
She needed to walk so around the village circuit we went at a reasonable brisk space. The peddle machine beckoned as we came in our front door. This time an odd revolution or two was completed whenever I assisted to provide a little momentum. But useless as a form of exercise! So what is different about being seated in a chair to peddle and walking upright (I think that is the only way to do it) for 20 minutes without hesitation? Did evolution provide different logic paths for walking than for peddling? Not likely since peddling is a recent innovation.
To bed and sleep at 11:30pm with hot milk, honey & two panodol. I woke at 3am expecting her to wake, which she didn't, even though I went for a stroll down the hall. She woke at 5:30am. By the dim morning light I watched her "getting up"; at least a minute (maybe more) to raise her body and hang her legs over the side of the bed. The average neurologist worth his pills will immediately shout "under-medicated!". I helped her rise on her feet then to the toilet. I talked her into a sedative. And that returns me to the beginning of this chapter.
Except for an interesting observation she made yesterday. Well, she says she has made it several times in the past few weeks without the idea sinking into my head. Her left hand does not shake, well not often, much less than earlier. Somewhat the same for her left leg. She tends to carry objects in her left hand, using her right makes it tremor badly. Perhaps this is an indication that she is reversing out of her morass? Back in 1990/91 it was her right side where tremor was first noticed, not her left for a long time after. Is it too much to hope & pray that some layers of her PD onion are beginning to peel away? Surely not.
At 9:50am she sleeps the sleep of an innocent, on her left side, wrong way up in bed.
Yesterday she slept from 7am till a little after 11am, then again for an hour from 3pm. She had no meds until 2pm & that only a half dose. At 8pm a full dose. Consequently, when awake she was very stiff & slow. At 4pm she showered with some difficulty. She feels the need to exercise, is only able to complete arm exercises shown on a video tape, leg exercises are beyond her. Yet she walks reasonably well. The last time she visited our neighbour in hospital (poor thing has been there for some 2 months, unable to walk) she asked to borrow a small peddling machine. So next door I went, borrowed the machine from the neighbour's partner, adjusted the thing for minimal drag only to find she is unable to make the pedals turn. She felt she may be able to peddle backwards, so I turned the machine around (the pedals rotate in one direction only) and she was able to make one hesitant jerky rotation. Utter failure.
We dined with Al Fresco on our rear patio on fried chicken pieces dusted with curry then I went next door for awhile to discuss, over a glass of red, the idiotic results of a Washington Post poll of USERS that has determined that about 50% of the US population believe that the Islamic world is becoming more violent. Talk about the emperor lacking clothes!!! We also resolved a few of the world's problems.
She needed to walk so around the village circuit we went at a reasonable brisk space. The peddle machine beckoned as we came in our front door. This time an odd revolution or two was completed whenever I assisted to provide a little momentum. But useless as a form of exercise! So what is different about being seated in a chair to peddle and walking upright (I think that is the only way to do it) for 20 minutes without hesitation? Did evolution provide different logic paths for walking than for peddling? Not likely since peddling is a recent innovation.
To bed and sleep at 11:30pm with hot milk, honey & two panodol. I woke at 3am expecting her to wake, which she didn't, even though I went for a stroll down the hall. She woke at 5:30am. By the dim morning light I watched her "getting up"; at least a minute (maybe more) to raise her body and hang her legs over the side of the bed. The average neurologist worth his pills will immediately shout "under-medicated!". I helped her rise on her feet then to the toilet. I talked her into a sedative. And that returns me to the beginning of this chapter.
Except for an interesting observation she made yesterday. Well, she says she has made it several times in the past few weeks without the idea sinking into my head. Her left hand does not shake, well not often, much less than earlier. Somewhat the same for her left leg. She tends to carry objects in her left hand, using her right makes it tremor badly. Perhaps this is an indication that she is reversing out of her morass? Back in 1990/91 it was her right side where tremor was first noticed, not her left for a long time after. Is it too much to hope & pray that some layers of her PD onion are beginning to peel away? Surely not.
At 9:50am she sleeps the sleep of an innocent, on her left side, wrong way up in bed.
posted by Kilpike | 8:50 am
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