BLOODY PARKINSON’S: GOODBYE TO THE FAIRIES

Note that the following words and thoughts are mine alone and should be treated with due caution! My wife calls me a fibber at least once a day.......

Interesting list of target research areas from Parkinson’s UK. For what it’s worth, I have trouble with 1-3 and 8-10. You, dear reader, can perhaps work out if 5 and 6 apply:

Top 10 priority research areas

1. Balance and falls
2. Stress and anxiety
3. Uncontrollable movements
4. Personalised treatments ie everyone with PD has their own version
5. Dementia
6. Mild thinking and memory problems
7. Monitoring symptoms
8. Sleep
9. Dexterity
10. Urinary problems

MEANWHILE....

Older readers may recall that fairies moved in to the bottom of our garden in Autumn last year. Here’s a picture of their front door.

Well they have been evicted by the local council who essentially informed us that we were at risk of damaging the tree outside the house with its little door. I can see their point but it’s a pity that we won’t keep meeting the charming people, old and young, who used to stop and leave sweets and toys for the fairies. Let’s hope they find a nice home soon.

Anyway enough of fairies! I’ve been given a questionnaire to complete which asks me to indicate which of a long list of possible symptoms of PD I’ve suffered from recently. The trouble is that I interpret the questions as a long shopping list of things PD is trying to do to me. Pint half full, I suppose. There are several things I’m suffering from now: a sense of urgency to pass urine makes you rush to the toilet, getting up regularly at night to pass urine, problems remembering things that have happened recently or forgetting to do things (I have a particular problem remembering to mow the lawn), feeling sad, finding it difficult to stay awake and so on.

Not applicable at time of writing, but I’m sure lying in wait are the following ‘gifts’ from PD: believing things are happening to me that other people say are not! Who are these people? Maybe it’s the fairies? Dribbling saliva in the day time. Vomiting or feelings of sickness.

Other possibilities include: difficulty staying focussed, talking or moving about in my sleep as if acting out a dream, double vision, excessive sweating (not excessive swearing!), and seeing or hearing things that I know or am told are not there. Is there any area of my life that isn’t already or won’t in the future be affected by PD? I guess not.

On an unconnected note we went to see the new Jungle Book film in a cinema packed with parents and parties of kids who all seemed to enjoy it, including the grown-ups. Now this is a relatively new cinema with members and a members’ bar and restaurant, yet all over the cinema and throughout the film people left their phones on – admittedly with sound turned off – checking emails and texts continually. What hope is there for the manners of the next generation if their parents can’t tune out for 2 hours watching an amazing film?

IN THE PUB

Conversation ranged around an interestingly hoppy and very tasty pint from Truman’s called Budburst, the London Mayoral election, Victoria Wood, Prince, Billy Connolly, dinner parties, car parking and much more I cannot recall. Another potential problem from PD according to the questionnaire is ‘difficulty concentrating or staying focussed’. Better watch out for that one!