POSITIVE with PARKINSONS

              Since I have Parkinson's, I would like to move to a one story smaller ranch style home.  I just found a piece of land near where we live which seems perfect!  I just love the brick style home in the photo above! I don't know it is it smarter to buy an existing ranch home that needs work and gut it or build brand new.  We are going to go look at the land today and make a decision!  We were planning to buy a three bedroom home and let Olivia and Olya share the master because it is bigger.  Dan and I like to have our own bedrooms! We are also going to go look at some modular homes on the way to pick up Olya from college.  Dan thinks modular homes are not that good for resale, but who cares?  My kids will sell the house when we die! I want an open concept home with a large family room and a large kitchen and three or four bedrooms.  I don't want a second story but Dan wants a basement and of course, we need a two car garage!      Today I got up and didn'

              Today I am watching Renee's dog, Sandy!  She is a very sweet dog, but she does not particularly care for me. She will definitely let me feed her or give her a treat.  She does NOT like my walker.  She stays far away from me when I am using it which is pretty much of the day. But I still enjoy having her here. This afternoon I was going to put her outside on the dog lead.  I opened the sliding door to get the chain and she ran passed me and ran outside. I tried to grab her bur she is really strong!  All of a sudden, she realized that she wasn't hooked up and off she ran. Dan got in the car to follow her and I ran up the street after her.  I didn't even think about my walker, I just ran!! I guess my brain ignored my Parkinson's for those twenty minutes!  Dan said my brain didn't have time to think about it. Two cars saw us trying to chase her and they stopped to try to help us, we didn't even know them.   A young teen and her mom got out of o

         Today I feel better.  I guess the symptoms of Parkinson's are better on some days so I will try to focus on the positive. I joined a few online support groups and chatted with a few people. Some people have had Parkinson's for years and their cognitive functions have not been impaired!  One man told me that he has had it for 3 years and has hallucinations every night.  I hope that doesn't happen to me!         Dan and I went and looked at new townhouses today  I wanted to buy one and put in an elevator but they said it is against township  ordinances.  That shocked me, it sort of sounds like a prejudice against disabled people. I guess I will have to buy a ranch house and gut it. I know that I want the entire room to be open except for bedroom and bathrooms!          Below is a letter we received from someone who participated in the random act of kindness in Amy's memory.          Hi Colleen and Dan,  I wanted to let you know that I took one of your envelop

               Today my Parkinson's and sciatica were in full bloom.  I could barely walk!  Dan drove me to the chiropractor today and I had to shuffle in!  I like my chiropractor but while he is working on me I am in excruciating pain!!  The next day or two my sciatica is much better!  After the chiropractor appointment we went to Target!  I needed to get more No.7 serum and moisturizer.  I also got a new No.7 anti wrinkle cream!  For the first time I used a motorized cart because I just could not walk! I tried and tried but sort of just stood there and shuffled a tiny bit with my new fancy walker! I kept talking to myself (maybe the dementia has set in already)but I could not walk except for tiny shuffles. Then we went to Giant Food Market, I waited in the car.  It is so annoying to have legs that don't connect with your brain!! It boggles my mind that I can't walk the way I want to walk!  Then we went to pick up Olivia.  She had an interesting day! There is one woman

We went out for breakfast this morning with Olivia and Frankie.  It was so delicious!  Dan and Olivia had the breakfast above.  This is my breakfast(blueberry whole grain pancake) This is Frankie's breakfast.         We had a nice time chatting at breakfast.  I had eaten at this newer restaurant with my bereaved mom friends a while ago and it was really good.  Sat night I asked Olivia and Frankie if they wanted to go out to breakfast and they both said yes! Olivia stayed overnight at Frankie's so I thought they wouldn't get up early because I told them they had to meet us by 10 a m.  The phone rang at 9:00 a m and I thought to myself............whose stupid idea was it to go out to breakfast???? Oh, right...it was MY STUPID idea!  I had been sound asleep.  Truth to be known, I was glad that Olivia woke me up.  I hate to sleep in late and change my sleep pattern.  With Parkinson's, it's important to get a good night's sleep!         Later in the aft

                  Today I went to the funeral for my friend Mary's mom. Mary is one of 13 children!!! I met Mary at college when I was 17 years old.  Everyone has those friends that "just don't age!"  Mary and her husband Tom look exactly the same as when they got married!! Her brother gave the eulogy and it was so sweet and so funny! I just can't imagine having that many siblings! While I was sitting at the Mass service, I was thinking about rituals and traditions.  Do we have funerals and christenings and graduations because they are our rites of passage in life?  I wonder who started the first funeral or the first christening or first graduation!  The funeral I went to today was certainly a wonderful end of life passage. Mary's mother did so many wonderful things in life and was very religious.  She got her teaching degree AFTER having 13 kids!! I am sure she is with God, if that is what happens when people die. I really am banking on a God but not 100%

                Today I packed sandwiches for when we went to pick up Olivia from Beauty School because she had to go to work right after school. I knew she had to work until 8 and I didn't want her to be hungry while at the first day of her new job!  I packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich(not one of her favorites) and a chicken and cheese sandwich.  She likes pickles on her sandwich so I packed them in a separate baggie so that they wouldn't make the bread soggy!  I packed the same thing for Dan also.  I put two clementines in each of their bags.  Dan ate his lunch while I was in with the chiropractor.  Dr Brian is really helping me.  His chiropractic table looks like a torture chamber table and it often feels that way when he is working on me!! He is rough but it seems to be working better than any other treatment I have had. It is excruciating when he is trying to get the muscles to loosen up but then I feel better for a day or two!   The main  chiropractic treatment

         Today I spent  a few hours reading about Parkinsons.  I don't like much of what I read.  My neurologist told me that basically Parkinsons is a disease that effects the motor symptoms in the brain. Apparently, it is the most common movement disorder.  The brain needs dopamine and people who have Parkinsons don't make or have enough dopamine.  There is no definitive reason why anyone gets Parkinsons.  There are several theories, one  being a mutation on a gene, I believe that is the correct theory,  My doctor said that the symptoms, rate of progression and degree of movement difficulty varies with each person.  I don't have any tremors, my difficulty is movement. The fact that I also have sciatica in my left leg makes movement even more difficult.         Parkinson's disease is a disorder of the nervous system that primarily affects bodily movement. It develops because of the impairment or death of certain nerve cells in the brain. The loss of these neuron

            Last night I went to a bereaved parent meeting.  I hadn't gone for awhile because of my sciatica and my Parkinsons diagnosis.  I was so happy to see my friends!!  I am known as the total skeptic in the group.  Almost everyone, except for my friend Kathy and I, believe in signs from their deceased child.  I wish I believed in signs but I just don't! I think a bird is just a bird and a firefly is just a firefly and a dragonfly is just a dragonfly!         Everyone was supposed to bring in one of their child's items.  I didn't read the group Facebook page before I went to the meeting so I didn't bring anything of Amy's.  Instead I told a story about Amy.  Amy was a big reader, she was always reading a book.   She read the books she was assigned to read in English class in a few days.  She and Dan were always at Borders or Barnes and Noble bookstores buying books.  Her favorite authors were Jonathan Kellerman, John Grisham,  and Stephen King. Grisham

        Today Dan and I were talking about old age! I remember Dan's father said to me..."there's an advantage to being old.  You go to the bookstore, buy a book, read it, enjoy it, and then put it on the shelf.  He said a few weeks later you walk by the shelf and say, hey there's a book I haven't read yet!" He lived to be 100 years old!! When he was in his late eighties he had a knee replacement.  He told me that the replacement was good for ten year.s  I asked him what he was going to do after the ten years. He said he figured he wouldn't be around after that so that the knee replacement would last him for his lifetime.  I said to him, in ten years, "I have a feeling that you'll say, "hey this knee is sill really good. I'm good with it." He laughed and said I was right!!       Some people have funny wisdom even when they are still relatively young!! My friend Debbie just always cracks me up!!! Her granddaughter Paige received a gi

             We watched Sandy, our granddog, this weekend because Renee and Adam went to NY to see the play Hamilton!!  Sandy thinks she is Adam's lap dog!! She just LOVES Adam. She was SO SO happy when they got back!! Sandy tolerates us but doesn't really like us that much!! Sandy is a smart dog.  She  unlatched  the dining room doors to get out to the cat fodd we had left by the front door. There was even a dining room chair against the back of the foor but she moved that back too! This morning when I came downstairs, she had opened the kitchen louver doors and ate all of the cat food during the night! So I put a stool in front of the doors. Then later, she dragged the stool away from the kitchen doors to get out to the cat food! We heard her out in the kitchen and Dan went and saw the stool moved.  The stool was all  wet from her dog saliva!! She was trying to get back out to the cat food!!      When Benson, Amy's cat died, we had him cremated and we buried his ashes

       Yesterday Dan and I went out and looked at a few building lots I found online.  We'd love to find a nice flat lot like the one in the photo to the left.  We looked at about 6 lots in our area and only found one lot we sort of liked!  We definitely want to stay in the area because we like our area and our friends, family, and doctors are here!! At our age, you have to like the doctors you choose!! We want to buy a 1/3 or 1/2 acre lot and then build on it in a year or so.  Or maybe start on the foundation.  We don't want to move for at least a year.  My friend Amy moved to a beautiful new townhouse right near us, but now that I have Parkinsons we are definitely going to build a ranch.  If we don't find a building lot, we'll buy a ranch and gut it and redo it so it seems new. Dan doesn't want to move to a retirement community because he doesn't want to pay the huge HOA fees.  Renee sent us to look at a retirement community. We are not spring chickens

                 Amy is ALWAYS on our minds, we miss her every minute of everyday. Amy was so sweet and a very thoughtful and kind young woman.  Every year at Valentine's Day, we do something in her honor.  Last year we gave money to the nurses at Bryn Mawr hospital and they had a breakfast/brunch and were very grateful,  they put Amy's picture on the table.  One year we gave money to the kids in Olivia and Olya's youth group and asked them to do a good deed with the money  Another year we gave our pastor the $7,000 in Amy's bank fund and asked him to use it to help others as he saw fit.  This year, I gave out envelopes with $5 in them and asked friends and strangers to perform random acts of kindness with the money. I  handed envelopes to random strangers as I walked in and out of grocery stores, CVS, WAWA, etc. I guess they could keep the money for themselves but I am hoping they use it to help others.  I filled 25 envelopes with a short note and $5.   Below is m

       I decided to blog again because so many of my friends told me that they missed my blog!  I was going to write a blog about doing Random Acts of Kindness.  That was too difficult to work out because so so, so many people have been so kind to me when they see me struggle to walk with my walker.  Many people run ahead of me and hold the door open for me.     This adorable card was made by my friend Debbie's granddaughters Paige and Brielle.  I just LOVE it, they are the sweetest little girls!   I HATE having Parkinsons, no ifs, ands, or buts.  I just hate it but I am not going to let it control my life.  I don't have any problems with tremors or shaking, at least, not for now. I am trying to remain as positive as I can be.  I buried my 18 year old daughter Amy in 2001, there is nothing, including Parkinsons, that can ever be as difficult to live with.  All bereaved parents know that there is nothing worse than losing a child. I copied the info below from WIkipedia.