Coming to Grips With My New Reality and Dependency

         I have ALWAYS been independent.  I got a job at age 15 and worked and saved money to buy a car and pay for gas, repairs, etc.  My first car was a lime green Ford Pinto and it cost just under $2,000 new.

My dad paid part of the tax for me because I didn't have quite enough to pay all of it! I had to get a manual shift car because that was what I could afford, and I didn't know how to drive stick shift.   It only took me an afternoon to learn how to drive stick.  I also didn't have a radio in the car because I couldn't afford it. I loved my first car so much!! I wish I would have waited and worked another week to be able to afford a radio.  I have almost always worked while married so I had to learn to arrange my schedule and the kids' schedules to be able to do that.  I also started my own business as a reading specialist subcontractor.  I had to work independently to get my students up to their grade level in reading. I have always been an independent hard worker. I also tutored a few days per week after school to have money for my kids' private music and tennis lessons. I have always been able to work things out in a positive manner until now. I had breast cancer, had a lumpectomy and radiation and went on about my life.

     I now feel betrayed by my brain and my body.  I know that my brain is not producing enough dopamine to allow me to move correctly or in a timely manner.  I wish I had some answers. All movement is slow, clumsy, and difficult! It is annoying to take so much time to get things done and it is annoying to have to use a walker to move around. Maybe I should be grateful that I can still move around! I try to go out everyday so that I keep moving.  Mondays and Wednesdays I go to the chiropractor and then Dan and I run errands or go pick up Olivia.  Tuesdays and Thursdays I think I will join the Rock Steady Boxing class for people with Parkinsons's.  My friend Dianne told me about the class, she goes to the 9:30 a m class, I will probably have to go to the 11:00 a m class because I move so slowly in the morning.  I now have bars in my showers so I don't fall.  I have a walker on each floor so that I can move around.  Now I want to buy a ranch house so I can get rid of having to climb up and down the steps!
     My sister told me about a development, partly funded by the Michael J Fox Foundation, made by the University of Delaware.  It is a pair of shoes for Parkinson's patients.  They are still in trial stages and they probably won't be available for a few years but it is a good thing!

Who wouldn't want to wear these lovely and stylish shoes?

Now, the PDShoe, an ordinary beach shoe equipped with force sensors and a simple vibration system, shows promise for managing one of the most distressing symptoms of PD—freezing of gait, which is an episodic inability to step effectively.

Kyle Winfree, a doctoral student in UD’s Biomechanics and Movement Science program, explains that the vibration in the robotic shoe is synchronized to the heel strike and toe-off of the person wearing it, so it delivers a vibration every time the foot strikes the ground.

There is evidence to suggest that various cuing mechanisms—auditory and visual as well as vibratory—can unfreeze the gait.

“We’re not sure of the mechanism,” says Pretzer-Aboff, who has extensive experience with PD patients and stroke survivors. “But if further studies show that the PDShoe works, it could have a tremendous impact on the quality of life for people with Parkinson’s.”