Chapter 221 - Odds & Ends

"Those strips between the beds really help me get back into bed at night. Before you put them there, I froze as soon as I returned and reached the foot of the beds." she said a few mornings ago. The strips are just ragged bits of masking tape stuck to the carpet. Our cleaning lady will need to be cautioned next Friday otherwise some of the strips are likely to end up in the vacuum cleaner.

She has decided to continue to sleep on her older harder mattress so I nearly busted my pooper dragging the expensive shape molding mattress back into the ceiling. Last night she queried whether the head end of her bed could be chocked up a little. I'll see about placing some scrap timber between the base & the mattress. She says her breathing is restricted when she lays on her back on a level surface; that's why sometimes she asks for extra pillows.

The course of ant-biotics has about finished. She still rises a number of times in the middle of the night but she has not been complaining about the number so I suppose the UTI has gone. She asked me this morning to return the commode to the shower recess in the other bathroom (a convenient storage space for un-used exercise gadgets, walking frames, scooter etc etc.)

Yesterday when I collected medications one of the chemists asked how the Sinemet CR was helping her. I really could not give a definitive answer. So much interacts. I think some her difficulties are withdrawing - she has not had intense hip & lower back pains recently but is that due to the Bowen sessions easing pain thus improving her posture? (no Bowen recently, school holidays & the lady seems to be away) What contribution was the UTI making to her general non-well being? She seems more conscious of her lower half freezing; often talking to her feet, telling them to move, counting "1, 2, 3, 4" softly out loud. I noticed recently on the PIEN group that some North Americans say they have experienced little or no benefit from Sinemet CR - good luck to them; they who haven't been deprived of the stuff for the last year!!

She has used her walker to visit her friend around the corner a few times. Thursday last week I took her to our local PD Group meeting and I came back home because a solar panel man was calling for a site inspection. A number of the Parkies commented on her light clothing and no jacket when every one else is rugging up in our cool autumn weather. I find, in general, that Parkies are largely ignorant of the problems of their fellow sufferers, seeming to believe that every one exhibits the same problems as themselves, little more than a few shakes & tremors. I suspect ladies think the flushing & sweating of the autonomic problems of PD are due to "change of life" matters even though that happened to themselves 20 years earlier. I don't know about the blokes that may have the problem. At times I can sense her dampness like steam rising through her clothing.

At "off times" her vision, even with reading glasses, is very poor. Yesterday we made appointments with our optometrist for late June. I hope a prescription can be made to suit her when she is off.

There has been no inclination to use the Wii lately and only occasional requests for the treadmill when her calf muscles cramp.

On Sunday our son & family visited so we took them to the club to celebrate the grandson's 12th birthday. Afterwards we returned back to our village where we experimented with water & compressed air powered rockets down near the pond. We had a great deal of fun but she had no desire to join in the frolics so stayed inside. Interestingly, our youngest (10) grand daughter stayed with her for company & it seems they had quite a conversation. She has so little opportunity to be grandmother.