http://www.wearingoff.com/ en Copyright 2012 http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/176-the-roller-coaster-ride http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/176-the-roller-coaster-ride Ivan’s reprieve lasted just three weeks. Then he had to be re-admitted into a nursing home. When he returned home in early April, he was very fit. His Parkinson’s disease (PD) symptoms were well under control. We took things easy at first; during the second week, we resumed the care plan, with Ivan going to his daycare centre twice. We also attended a medical appointment, so it was a busy week. Thu, 17 May 2012 13:29:22 +0100 http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/175-these-early-days http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/175-these-early-days Today was the May Day public holiday in the UK and my son, daughter-in-law and grandson came for lunch and stayed for nearly 6 hours. Usually 6 hours would be way past my limit for any form of social interaction without at least one, if not two, lengthy periods of bed rest. Amazingly my grandson exerts a power over my Parkinson’s symptoms that no one else, or no other event or medication, can achieve. I did take an hour’s rest prior to their arrival and immediately after their departure but I still think it is remarkable how, more often than not, he keeps my fatigue attacks at bay during his visits. Mon, 14 May 2012 17:02:41 +0100 http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/172-mind-matters http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/172-mind-matters Geography was always my favourite subject at school because you could sit and chat in class while colouring in the colonies on a map. Also, it was easy to get full marks if you knew your stuff; capitals, longest rivers and the number of sheep in New South Wales. I spent hours with my nose in the atlas and my head in the clouds and later on I discovered that it had great scope. Geography was the subject for me, and I decided to take it at university and afterwards went on to teach the subject. Mon, 14 May 2012 13:29:26 +0100 http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/171-wear-sunscreen http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/171-wear-sunscreen Parkinson’s disease (PD) is known to affect the memory of some sufferers, although not of everyone. My personal logic is that if I am to be one of the PD patients who is not affected then I have to try shortening the odds. My theory is that because not all suffer memory problems, perhaps there are manageable variables for this potential PD symptom. My strategy is simple: use it or risk losing it. As my illness has progressed over the past 10 years I have mentally pushed myself by reading more, doing crosswords, Sudoku puzzles, and engaging in newspaper and pub quizzes. Wed, 02 May 2012 12:52:02 +0100 http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/168-back-from-the-brink http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/168-back-from-the-brink Ivan’s joy at coming home after 5 weeks respite was marred when he discovered his bed had been brought downstairs to the living room. “I feel as if I have been written off!” I explained that, on the contrary, every effort had been made to enable him to continue living independently. Fortunately, he realises that the new arrangement has made his life much simpler, given his slowness and stiffness. Using the stair lift had become dangerously awkward. Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:23:40 +0100 http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/167-the-insidious-intruder http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/167-the-insidious-intruder Three years ago, in late March, I was in Paris with six members of my Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients forum for three days of sightseeing, PD support and friendship (I should confess that I was the token male and the other six were all females). All bar one of us had met before and most of us have met on more than one occasion since. Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:24:09 +0100 http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/165-music-music-music http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/165-music-music-music Music has always been important to me and I started recorder lessons at the age of eight with mother Mary Magdalene, a nun at my convent school. I then moved on to the violin and scraped my way through several exams and made it to the back row of the second fiddles in the local youth orchestra. However, my real passion was always singing. I enjoyed singing in the school choir, but the lack of boys was a distinct disadvantage and at the age of 15 I had to suffer the indignity of being the leading boy in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury. Thu, 05 Apr 2012 09:25:49 +0100 http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/162-the-history-man http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/162-the-history-man When I started my degree course at college last September I originally wanted to study just History as a single subject. However, my nearest local college only offered combination degrees so I chose History and Sociology. The nearest college offering just History was about 35 miles away from where we live which is unfortunately more than my Parkinson’s disease (PD) allows me to drive Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:48:13 +0100 http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/161-peat-and-pills http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/161-peat-and-pills My sister recently stumbled across a website that detailed the family tree on our mother’s side of the family, going back to the 16th century. Our mother was born in 1931 in an area in the east of England known as the Fens, where her family have been traced back on this website to 1572. The Fens is a very rural, low lying, flat and open countryside but also has extensive drainage, with peat based soil, and is therefore ideal for arable farming. Consequently, the majority of the population in the Fens worked on farms up until around the early 1960s. Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:35:25 +0000 http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/159-a-week-is-a-long-time http://www.wearingoff.com/blog/post/159-a-week-is-a-long-time People say that a week is a long time in politics. It seems it can also be a long time in Parkinson’s disease (PD). So much can change in just a few days. Mon, 19 Mar 2012 09:26:19 +0000