In my life at the moment, for the most part I just carry on with my life and am very much enjoying my retirement again. I am enjoying the various activities I have chosen and most days I have something planned that I enjoy doing. I can therefore, just get on with things and not give my condition too much brain space.
You may note that when I refer to my Parkinson’s, I refer to it as Parkies. That is how my husband talk about it. It makes it a small thing, an insignificant thing, a trivial thing if you like. By referring to it in this way, it does not immediately, for me sound like a thing I need to take too seriously. For me and for my husband Parkies and it’s sidekick Arthur (short for arthritis) are the banes of my existance. I also will not – if I can help it – refer to Parkinson’s Disease. I do not like the word disease attached to the diagnosis. For me, it makes me think it is something I need to be careful that I don’t infect other people with it. As far as I know, Parkinson’s is not at all communicable.
So the reason I say that I am feeling the presence of Parkies in my life is that I went to play an away game of bowls with three other members of our bowling club. The green was terrible to bowl on and we really had to heave the bowls up. I had taken my breakfast medications about 6am and was due for some more for lunchtime. I found myself feeling sluggish and tired and it was an effort to get up and down from the green. I really was affected by a number of things. One being my condition, others like bowling on a green that was so sluggish, that you just about had to put your whole body weight behind every delivery. So, it was extra tiring this morning. So, I decided to take my lunch meds around 11am. Hopefully, that would get me through the last half a dozen or so ends.
I had thought of going to the afternoon roll-up at our club, but when our game ended I was ‘cream crackered’ aka ‘knackered’ – Cockney rhyming slang! Absolutely, bushed, shattered, buggered….
So, I decided to come home and get some rest, which I have done. But, it is still hot and I have a few wee chores to battle my way through.
Today I had another wake up call from my condition, reminding me that it was still there and determined to be a major pain in the butt!
I’ve done a wee podcast about today, if you’d like to have a listen here ’tis.
My journey with Parkinsons 