Chapter 462 - Made Someone's Day

Most Sundays are a day of ritual. Me haggling her to clean teeth and use the loo so that we can be at the mall in a disabled parking slot by 0930 before they fill. So I found a number when we arrived a little after 1000, although I had to paddle in a puddle; seems there is a counsel regulation that a number of such slots must collect rain water. Into KMart where 4 pairs of shoes were bought for her, two same design as the last ones now becoming a little tatty plus another two slipper types; the latter I think only $3 which is fortunate because this morning she finds that they fall off her feet, especially her left which is "dropped". Not that she uses shoes to walk in, being wheel chair bound, but to protect her sensitive feet. Also a horse shoe shaped collar to wear in bed; which she did last night and may have given her a head ache with which she woke this morning. And a small stick-handled vacuum cleaner for the princely sum of $29, for her to collect threads and fabric choppings that she drops on the floor. The other day, while she sat on the loo, I removed the front wheels of the wheel chair to dig quantities of thread out of the axles; should the vacuum cleaner be used regularly that task may not be required so often. Then to the newsagent to buy another quilting magazine, followed by coffee and hot chocolate opposite. We needed to wait at the supermarket for a wheel chair attachable trolley to be found. Sometime much later the trolley was overflowing as I pushed the semi-trailer combination to a checkout, at the same time carrying a pack of 20 toilet rolls. A good trick I use is to poke a finger through the plastic covering of the pack into the centre of an end roll and that makes the pack so much easier to carry. As I dumped the toilet rolls on the check out conveyor followed by food stuffs I said to the cashier "Do you think it strange that we spend so much money on foodstuffs then have to buy these things to get rid of the results?". She burst out laughing, saying "You've made my day. I hadn't thought of that before." So satisfying to bring a ray of sunshine to someone. Home again a little before 1300. Although she has not had an "accident" when someone from Wild Dog Care has taken her shopping, she has intimated that this may be why she prefers me to take her, even though she complains that I whisk her in and out of the aisles between clothing racks or food stuff shelving far too quickly.

An experience in bed at 2000 on Thursday evening has me worried. She suddenly told me that her throat "burnt" each time she breathed in. She wanted some chocolate to ease the sensation, but instead worsened it. A cough lolly didn't help. The stress made her hot; needed the fan on (very cold night). Her legs were mildly dyskinetic. Then her spit was thick and sticky as it often is; sprayed her mouth with Biotene. She asked for a fruit flavoured ice cream block and that seemed to help. She thought her throat felt as if there was pepper in it. About 2100 I changed the Duodopa pump to the over night rate then she slept. Waking about 2230 she said her throat tickled when breathing in.

With a referral from our GP stating I was suffering with "carer stress", late Friday I attended my first appointment with a clinical psychologist, DG. When he began the consultation by describing what we will cover, I interrupted to say I thought it may be better for me to describe our situation, so I did, so we ran 10 minutes over the allotted hour but since he arrived 10 minutes late for the appointment I didn't feel too bad. I think I put him in the picture of our PD journey of 25 years; I feel better for that because in speaking to the two counsellors at Community Health during the last couple of years I always felt I never had the opportunity to fully describe our situation. When I mentioned cognitive decline, alluding to dementia, he pointed out that, from his training, PD was a problem in the Substantia Nigra whereas cognitive problems occurred in the frontal lobes etc. Since I am but a layman and he is not treating my PWP I disregarded his comments. Anyway, we got along well and I am to see him again. I left with some breathing exercises.

I have begun only giving her half a Movicol sachet each morning; she has been both loose and "marbles" this past week.