Chapter 109 - What Has Changed?

After posting the previous chapter I went to check on her. I found her eating breakfast, fully clothed after having showered! Finding her so was a shock. What has caused this reversal of inability? Then Saturday morning the same, although she did mention pain down her left leg rather than the usual right one, but it quickly went. And again yesterday, Sunday, except that she woke me to fasten her bra. Now this morning she is still sleeping so I don't intend to disturb her; I will just wait to see what happens.

So what has changed in our behaviour or our environment to bring about this improvement in her condition?

Several weeks ago our neighbour at the rear was visited by her 90 year old sister, a sprightly young 90 year old about 4 feet high, who practices all sorts of "voodoo" including, Reflexology, and is a member of one of those wealthy "Christian" sects from Cowboy Country. Anyway, sister convinced her to sample a little reflexology, left a book or two. Since then she has been manipulating her finger tips and pressing a point on her hands. Can some of this stuff work?

Then a week ago, for no obvious reason that I can see, she changed her 9am meds (a Sinemet CR and an Inderal) to 10am. Earlier still, what was a midnight CR is now taken whenever she wakes without the aid of the alarm clock anytime after midnight and bedtime seems to be shortly after 10pm. Have these changes in meds had an effect?

And about a week ago I noted on one of the PD groups that researchers somewhere had induced PD-like symptoms in mice then fed them large quantities of green tea to find that the symptoms of the mice reduced and brain cell damage was reversed. Well, the story went something like that. Anyway, on Wednesday after buying her puzzle magazines I popped into Coles where I bought three flavours of green tea. I was unsuccessful in convincing her to have her water bottle filled with green tea and she would not contemplate drinking Earl Grey green tea, so that is mine to drink. Of the other two I have been giving her 2 or 3 mugs of lemon grass flavoured each day. Guess what? It was Thursday morning that after a false start, she showered & dressed herself without any assistance from me. As with all things too good to be true I can't believe that green tea would have such a rapid impact upon her well-being.

We have also been walking in the park each afternoon, each day seeming to walk a little longer, a little more effort. She has even asked to go for a walk, rather than me cajoling her.

Apart from that one pain twinge in her left leg, she has had no pain, although her back feels "thick", almost painful after a walk.

Oh damn! She just called me on the CB. Here I've been describing improvements and today she needs help.

No, just the bra. "I don't know what is wrong with these, they want to twist" she explained as I went into the bedroom where she was sitting on the side of the bed dressing herself. I clipped the thing at the rear, getting quick at it these days. "That mop you wipe out the shower with is smelling and has little things flying out of it" she said. "I'll spray it. Are these two towels on the floor to go to the laundry?" "Yes and the bath mat."

An almost normal day begins. Five mornings in a row now when she has not needed help, if you ignore the chest harness. And I wonder why.

Chapter 108 - The Unpredictability of it All

I really thought we were in for a bad day yesterday. She had gone to bed the night before feeling hot, flushed face, after a pain-free day during which she had had a blood test (check-up on her kidney cancer problem of a few years ago) and a walk in the park. Out of bed yesterday with bad shakes, strong enough to discourage her from having a shower, so she ate her cereal breakfast in her chair, when the shakes stopped. Unbeknown to me hidden in my dungeon, she showered, dried and dressed herself. She then told me that I had carrots growing in their plastic bag at the bottom of the pantry so she cut off the unwanted growth, scraped and sliced them for the freezer, although by the time she had finished her back had become a bother, stooped over the bench top. Then she sorted the washing left over from a week or so ago. Late morning she dozed in her chair. In the afternoon we walked the park, checking out the new water gardens in this drought stricken town. At the conclusion of the longest walk in a long time her back was thickening. Earlier in the day I began, again, an attempt to embroider from photos of native hibiscus taken early in our days over in the west, 15 years ago. "I almost feel homesick for that town" I said "they were the happiest days in our lives." "Yes, they were" she replied. That was in the early years following her PD diagnosis and the prediction she would be a vegetable after 5 years. "Would you like to go back next autumn?" I asked. "Yes I would."

Time will tell.

Meanwhile, I will continue my attempts to embroider a realistic hibiscus, a dream I have had since first she became interested in machine embroidery. I am sorry I discouraged her from taking up the hobby way back then; I wanted her to wait until the machines were capable of more than cartoon-like designs. For now, although her machine waits, special designs are there to be stitched with special threads bought for Mother's Day at least 5 years ago, she is no longer able to sit at the machine long enough while she attempts to will her fingers to do what they must.

Let's have another good day, one at a time.

Chapter 107 - Bloody Monday

No, the chapter title does not refer to Monday-itis. I woke yesterday morning to see blood splattered down her night dress, bed sheet, mattress cover and sprayed onto several patches of the carpet. She had risen without realising her nose was bleeding, then looked for Kleenex. We rolled a tissue into a plug for her nose, like a Tampon thingy used at the hospital the last time this happened. To hold the tissue plug in place I used sticky tape. She even had a shower while I attempted to remove the stains on the carpet. The bedclothes were thrown into the washing machine after some soaking. The bleeding stopped within an hour so we didn't go to the hospital this time. She spent the day with tissue in her nose, removing it in the evening but on going to bed a little blood so she spent the night uncomfortably plugged. This morning she has decided to sleep until 10am. She just called me on the CB; she was "stuck" half way back onto the bed after going to the loo and needed pulling down & straightening for her to be comfortable.

Anyway, back to last week or so. Sunday 7th October was a dreadful day. At 6am she was OK but by 7am very shaky & stiff. She rose at 8am not capable of showering. By 10am her shakes were bad, sweating, chest tight, stressed, in tears. Several Panamax calmed her down an hour later so she went to the bathroom to attempt a shower; shaking discouraged her. Shaking peaked late in the afternoon, much milder by the time she went to bed. Like an iceberg, much of the shaking is below the surface.

On the Monday pain down to the ankle on her right leg prevented showering early. While eating breakfast I connected the TENS to her leg for several applications, then she sat on the whoopy cushion to encourage action in the bathroom. With Wednesday approaching, she was motivated enough to overcome her difficulties to have her hair trimmed late morning, a little shopping then lunch down the street.

Tuesday a shower with only a dull ache in her lower back & right leg which she then had me rub with a yukky cooling ointment, after which she dressed herself. A short walk in the park in the afternoon.

Several applications of the TENS before we left on Wednesday to meet her sisters for her birthday lunch. She seemed well all day, although after we were home again she told me she had had a pain down her right leg all day. She did not need to move much, an hour each way in the truck and seated for some three hours in the club. A pleasant day.

Thursday she showered & washed her sitting down; strict instructions not to lift her leg to avoid worsening her pain; then sat in her dressing gown while I applied the TENS to her right leg. We attended the monthly PD group, continuing at the club afterwards with lunch with friends for her birthday. When we arrived home about 2pm she needed bed, was very tired & shaky. She slept until 4pm when she had a good phone chat with a rellie, after which she was very shaky, flushed & so warm that she needed her small personal fan. Later, after going to the loo, she said her shakes were very bad, she was sweating so badly that her glasses fogged, yet there was no pain in her back or leg. In the evening we walked our village. Later, as I pulled up her jeans again (three or four times today) she was still hot, sweating & shaking badly. Then at 10:30pm the shaking stopped.

On Friday a good day dawned. Showered, although needed drying & dressing as usual this past week or so. No pain. A walk in the park. Intermittent tremors during the day.

Saturday much the same, showered and dressed herself, no pain all day although her back felt "thick" at times and by evening the shakes were noticeable. A slight nose bleeding in the morning before rising.

Sunday less to report other than she felt slightly unbalanced when rising from her chair. On thinking about that, I realise that I have been needed much less to assist her rising from the chair as I was during the last week plus. She was often calling me on the CB for help. It's strange how these small problems quickly become accepted as the norm, are not noticed, just disappear into the boring routine of day to day living.

A few minutes ago a friend called with a bunch of flowers for her. When he saw me at our village hall yesterday collecting our mail, he invited me over for a coffee which I declined saying she was not all that well (remember, her nose was plugged so I did not want to stay away too long). She is still asleep. She will wake soon to see the flowers. The world is good, as are many of its residents.

Chapter 106 - A Painful Week

As I dawned this morning she was sitting on the side of her bed. "I can't move" she said. Her situation reminded me of an incident earlier in the week. Anyway, I rolled out of bed, positioned her old, easy to slip into, shoes beside her feet and in the gloom helped her fit them to her feet. At one point "The tongue of the right shoe is folded in". You may remember that she finds walking without shoes difficult, her toes want to bend under, even going the twenty or so shuffling steps to the loo. She needed to be up this morning to relax her legs from slight cramping. She had missed her midnight CR, woke at 4:30am to take half a one, then her usual combo at 6:00am. Now at 7:40 she sits in her chair, has had her pulp cereal with sultanas (she rouses on me if I call them raisins) added, waiting to feel good about having a shower.

Tuesday was just plain awful. She begins a bad day by washing her hair. Just the action of raising her hands to her hair to wash out shampoo pre-applied before entering the shower usually causes bent back, stiffness, pain and general stress & discomfort. I suggested she should make use of the shower chair she has had for a number of years, always in the way in her bathroom but hardly ever used. Well, she did so Tuesday morning. All was well until after she raised her legs, one at a time, to wash her feet. On rising from the chair she was crippled with sciatic pain in her right hip & leg. The pain lessened slightly with the application of the TENS machine, three before 9am, and several does of Panamax. Yet not enough for her not to be in tears at 5pm. Unfortunately, our Bowen practitioner around the corner is no longer in business otherwise an emergency visit would have resolved the pain within half an hour.

Wednesday was worse. Even though the TENS was applied twice she was shaking too much to shower at 9am, so she returned to bed. I checked on her after 10am but she wanted to stay in bed. Yet at noon she rose, showered & dressed herself except for jeans. By 1:30pm she was extremely shaky, stressed & so hot that she had her tiny personal fan blowing on her face, which was flushed. A few minutes later she needed to walk the floor, then had to lie down in bed to "quiet the shakes" and a few minutes later called me on the CB for a couple of Panamax. She was too hot to need any covers on. I returned to my dungeon, on the way turning on the radio in the lounge room for some soothing music from Classic FM. Well, so I thought. I had the same playing in the dungeon. And on the way to the dungeon I must have bumped the on-off button of the CB in my pocket. A short time after I left her in bed she became restless, needed to get up. She was able to raise herself to a sitting position on the bed with her feet on the floor yet was unable to stand. She repeatedly called me on the CB; I failed to respond. Being seated at the centre of the bed she was too far from the phone and its emergency button. She yelled; I was at the other end of the house listening to quiet classical music, so non-intrusive I have no memory of what was playing; I did not hear her. She was stuck. About 2:20pm. She became stressed. As an orchestral piece on the radio drew to a crescendo finish she found that her shakes synchronised with the rhythm, then followed the tempo. Her chest tightened, breathing was difficult, dry mouth & sweating. Somehow by 3:15 she managed to coax her legs into motion to appear at the doorway of my dungeon. By 4:20 she needed to return to bed for she was very tired. I made sure my CB was on. At 5:50 I woke her as agreed. To the loo. Very sharp pains in her right hip. Three applications of the TENS on her hip before cheese on crumpets. Another 3 TENS applications before bed at 10:30pm. A short time later 2 Panamax then a little after 11pm she sat on the edge of the bed, shoes on to prevent toe curl. After that I have blurred memory of several loo visits into Thursday. Uncomfortable in bed, unable to shower, she sat in front of the TV for a few hours to her 9am meds after which slight stress made her sweaty. At 10:30am she found bed comfortable. I woke her at lunch time - none wanted. Woke her for 2pm meds. A friend called in about 3:15pm so I woke her for a change of scene. When the friend left an hour later she was hot & shaky. Perhaps that had not been a good idea, although she seemed better for the chat. Later in the evening a dose of TENS to her lower back which felt "thick" rather than painful. After cleaning her teeth before bed she was unable to adjust her clothing after the loo, she became hot & sweaty, unstable on her feet, stiff, needed help to get to the bedroom and the usual assistance with raising her right leg to get into bed when she feels this way. She had spent all of Thursday in her dressing gown.

Yesterday, Friday, we came out of the mire. She showered, "on the verge of pain" she said. Although she didn't really need me to, I dried & dressed her to avoid any stress on her back & leg. "So good to be dressed again" she smiled. So yesterday was one of those forgettable days that are good to remember; no big problems, no pain just a discomfort, watched her favourite DVD "My big fat Greek wedding", was interested in my hassles with our wireless broadband link, a zap with TENS around 5pm for "thick back" and all in all a good day for her.

When I checked on her a short time ago she had returned to bed feeling cold and not up to a shower yet. Maybe after 9am meds, which is about now.

On Wednesday next we meet at the little town halfway to the Big Smoke to meet with her Ugly Sisters for lunch. A special day, Cinderella will be 65.