Chapter 82 - A Short Trip

I was about to type 'She sleeps' when her voice sounded in the passage way "I'm up". Almost 3 hours asleep after returning from a PD conference down on the coast. We had intended to play the tourist as we arrived on Thursday afternoon and stayed in a disability friendly cabin at a tourist trap some 10kms out of town. Unfortunately, after we had a chicken salad lunch at McDonald's she was not up to doing anything but settle into the cabin. In the evening we enjoyed some chatting over a pizza with PD group friends who had borrowed someone's waterside holiday house. We had some trouble finding the house because my GPS insisted we take a short cut along a dirt track through dense scrub over some hills. We both became stressed when the GPS wished to guide us down a recently bull-dozed track that had a street name. Something the matter with the maps in this area? We found our way back to bitumen.

She had to rise several times during the night. Friday morning she rose late for a shower after her 6am Madopar Rapid had worn off so she needed drying & dressing after her shower.
The conference began at 10am on Friday with an introduction by an eminent person that we conveniently missed because of more GPS difficulties; even though I began on bitumen, the machine still wished to take short cuts. I must read the manual. The trip there was tense for her because of our lateness. Two very interesting practical speakers, even though one had a PHD. The meeting concluded with lunch, after which I bought some micro-wave-able food plus other nibbles, then back to the cabin because she was dis-interested in looking in shops. And light rain was falling. Back at the cabin she slept for an hour & a half. The TV in the cabin is mounted on the wall in the bedroom so she had to endure the returns of two of my favourite BBC violent spy/thriller shows, because she decided to stay in the bedroom rather than sit in the lounge room. Fortunately, her old fold-up plastic chair with arms was in the truck so she was able to sit comfortably. About 9pm she had her feet up on the bed; I expressed surprise when I saw her feet moving in circular motions - "What's happening with your feet?" "I'm wriggling them to relieve some tension." I relaxed. Her feet had looked much as they had during the horror days of over-medication. Later I watched her reverse direction while standing between the two beds; she shuffled each foot in turn about 4 times before she was able to walk towards the bathroom. During the night her sleep was again disturbed by her need for 3 excursions to the bathroom.

This morning I woke at 6:30am to find that she had been sitting on the side of her bed for over an hour. She then took her Madopar Rapid half an hour late in an attempt to smooth things this morning.

Our intentions had been to visit the art & craft shops in the little village after we checked out of the cabin, but rain was bucketing down so she was not keen to do so. So the trip that was meant to be a bit of a holiday only resulted in attending the conference. The rain continued to fall heavily, interspersed with cloud patches, until we were up onto the tablelands. During most of the drive she held onto the grab rails so tightly that her knuckles were white.

A month ago, 18th March, was when she decided to cut out meds at 2pm & midnight. Although she still feels "better in herself", I am sure she is stiffer, more akynesia, greater difficulty getting out of bed & seated positions & needs more assistance. Perhaps she needs to consider increasing her meds. We will see.