Chapter 28 - Tai-chi on a chair
Yesterday, Tuesday, she felt "stiff" all morning. She sat in her chair watching the Anzac marches on TV. She asked for her father's war record so she would know which unit to look out for. She saw the banner of the 4th Infantry battalion. "Mum always looked out for it."
Her right arm is becoming sore now. Her left elbow hurts. She wonders when the next appointment is to see her friendly specialist physician, also Margaret the Bowen lady as her lower back feels stiff, although she complains of no pain there.
A friend with new consumer technology is able to copy video tapes to DVD using his entertainment system. He made a copy of a tape of exercises specially designed for PD patients, mostly performed while seated on a chair, hence the title of this chapter. The most vigorous routine has the patient rotating each arm in slow cartwheels. Hardly aerobic, not stressful I would have thought. She has had the tape for years although there was usually some imagined hindrance to regularly performing to the slow rhythmical music. Now she is able to sit in the back room, close to the large TV and use the DVD. On Monday she tried to follow along with the people on the screen (all seated on chairs) but said "I have to be good to do this" and that is bitter since when she is "good" she has more interesting activities than exercising. But if exercise can help her then it is effort & time well invested. So yesterday about 3pm when she was truly "on" she began the exercise routine, even the one where she parades around a broom stick (bought recently for the purpose) held in one hand, then the other. She balked at doing some of the movements required while laying on the floor. She would have had difficulty rising, even with help. She was so pleased with her performance that she played the CD again after skipping the meditation section at the end. She has never been able to contemplate parts of her body relaxing, becoming heavy, becoming soft. Strange.
About 4:15pm she called me to say she felt light headed, balance was poor and felt cold. "I need to lay down." We agreed I was to wake her at 5:30pm as I tucked her beneath the bed clothes. At that time I returned; she was awake, thought she had dozed fitfully. She rose, feeling weak. She described the tremors after the exercise as "different, all through my body, tight in my chest. I'm on the verge of needing a Kalma. But there are still no tremors in my left arm." I assisted her at the toilet then to her chair, as she felt unstable, felt hot although there was no heating on in the house - I thought it cool. At 6pm she had her usual Sinemet CR & Inderal and was feeling awful. By 7pm she was feeling calmer inside so at 7:30 we ate curry and rice left over from last night. She cannot tolerate very hot curry, so this was so mild to be a poor excuse for one. Could spices effect her? Just as likely if gentle exercising can. She was alright then until 10pm when she began to feel "off" and took her evening happy pill (I doubt this has much impact on her ability to sleep) and we were both in bed at midnight (after watching most of a horrific documentary of interviews of villagers living in Ponar, Lithuania at the time of Jewish massacres between 1941 & 1944) when she took her last Sinemet CR for the day. I read for a few minutes then fell asleep. She said this morning that she was awake until 2am. She did not rise until the alarm sounded at 6:30 for her first meds. Another day begins. She sleeps.
Her right arm is becoming sore now. Her left elbow hurts. She wonders when the next appointment is to see her friendly specialist physician, also Margaret the Bowen lady as her lower back feels stiff, although she complains of no pain there.
A friend with new consumer technology is able to copy video tapes to DVD using his entertainment system. He made a copy of a tape of exercises specially designed for PD patients, mostly performed while seated on a chair, hence the title of this chapter. The most vigorous routine has the patient rotating each arm in slow cartwheels. Hardly aerobic, not stressful I would have thought. She has had the tape for years although there was usually some imagined hindrance to regularly performing to the slow rhythmical music. Now she is able to sit in the back room, close to the large TV and use the DVD. On Monday she tried to follow along with the people on the screen (all seated on chairs) but said "I have to be good to do this" and that is bitter since when she is "good" she has more interesting activities than exercising. But if exercise can help her then it is effort & time well invested. So yesterday about 3pm when she was truly "on" she began the exercise routine, even the one where she parades around a broom stick (bought recently for the purpose) held in one hand, then the other. She balked at doing some of the movements required while laying on the floor. She would have had difficulty rising, even with help. She was so pleased with her performance that she played the CD again after skipping the meditation section at the end. She has never been able to contemplate parts of her body relaxing, becoming heavy, becoming soft. Strange.
About 4:15pm she called me to say she felt light headed, balance was poor and felt cold. "I need to lay down." We agreed I was to wake her at 5:30pm as I tucked her beneath the bed clothes. At that time I returned; she was awake, thought she had dozed fitfully. She rose, feeling weak. She described the tremors after the exercise as "different, all through my body, tight in my chest. I'm on the verge of needing a Kalma. But there are still no tremors in my left arm." I assisted her at the toilet then to her chair, as she felt unstable, felt hot although there was no heating on in the house - I thought it cool. At 6pm she had her usual Sinemet CR & Inderal and was feeling awful. By 7pm she was feeling calmer inside so at 7:30 we ate curry and rice left over from last night. She cannot tolerate very hot curry, so this was so mild to be a poor excuse for one. Could spices effect her? Just as likely if gentle exercising can. She was alright then until 10pm when she began to feel "off" and took her evening happy pill (I doubt this has much impact on her ability to sleep) and we were both in bed at midnight (after watching most of a horrific documentary of interviews of villagers living in Ponar, Lithuania at the time of Jewish massacres between 1941 & 1944) when she took her last Sinemet CR for the day. I read for a few minutes then fell asleep. She said this morning that she was awake until 2am. She did not rise until the alarm sounded at 6:30 for her first meds. Another day begins. She sleeps.
posted by Kilpike | 6:55 am
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