Positive With Parkinson's

   

   I have always believed that being positive helps with any type of health issue, disease, etc. It is very difficult for bereaved parents to be positive because we have suffered with the worst thing that can happen. I have been doing my best to try to be positive even though I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.  It is the sciatica I have that bothers me the most.  I am reading everything I can about Parkinson's to stay up to date with the latest information.  My family and friends have been so supportive and that is so nice for me.  I try to do something social at least once a week to make myself leave the house and function with Parkinson's. Dan tries to get me to go out almost everyday.  A friend had told me about a Drumming Class and I went to that a few times. I couldn't go last week because we were in Disney and I couldn't go this week because my daughters switched cars and everything I needed was not in Dan's car.  I will have to make sure that I get there next week!! My doctor told me to keep moving around everyday.  The sciatica is difficult to deal with but I try to move through the pain. Sciatica and Parkinson's are but a drop in the bucket of sadness compared to losing my daughter Amy 18 years ago.  I do my best to try to think about the positive things in my life. Of course, my family is the most important positive thing in my life followed by my good friends.
        On Sunday morning I am hanging out with my best friend Priscilla,  and then Olivia and Olya and I are going to my friend Jackie's house in the afternoon to visit with her daughter Bonnie and grandson who will be visiting from NY.  I have only seen photos of her grandson and he is so cute! I am excited to go buy toys for him tomorrow!! Sunday night I have book club.  I just love the women in the group!  Most of our kids grew up together.  I read the book awhile ago and loved it. We read Lilac Girls.  It was a great read and will be a good book for discussion!

I will have to read a summary because I reread the book about a month or so ago.  I also am in a second book club and we  meet the fourth Wed of every month.  We are reading Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica. The book is a thriller and I can't put it down.  If I could choose to do anything I wanted to do in life, I would read and read and read!(And eat pizza and chocolate).  Until Amy died, I had everything I wanted in life. I loved my family, job, and my friends. Dan and I worked hard, saved money and had financial success.  Now I have to be satisfied with the life I have but the ultimate joys in my life were buried in Amy's casket with her. My sister recently had a cancer scare, she is fine, but she had told me that if she was diagnosed with cancer that she was going to go to Dairy Queen everyday.  She said that if her life was going to end that she was going out fat and happy.

 The book is fabulous!! My friend Adriana just joined the book club.  She is a bereaved mom and I am so glad she joined to get out of the house!  I thought she would be shy at the meeting the first time she went but she joined right in! Next week I am  having lunch with my friend Leslie.  We grew up together so being with Leslie makes me feel young! When I am out and about in the world, I forget that I have Parkinson's until my meds start to wane.
         Joe, Kat and my two granddaughters will be here visiting next weekend. It is Amy's anniversary date.  She died on May 25, 2001 at age 18. This year she will be gone as long as she was alive.  That was a difficult sentence to write.  Dan scheduled to have our pool opened on May 20th so my granddaughters can swim when they visit. The pool is heated so it won't be too cold for them to swim.  I also have a few crafts for them to do!
         June is a busy month for us!  Olya will be 21 on June 2nd, she and my deceased daughter Amy share the same birthday. Amy would be 36, almost 37, that is so hard for me to imagine. June 7th is my wedding anniversary date.  Renee and Adam both have birthdays in June. My friend Mary's daughter's baby shower is in June and she and my other friend Joann and I are getting together to make food and favors, etc.  Mary is one of 13, and she has nieces and great nieces, cousins and sisters-in-law so the shower will be huge!!They want to meet at my house to make the food and favors because it is in the middle and that totally works for me!  I think that Adam's parents and brother and family are coming to visit on Father's Day weekend.  We just love hanging out with all of them.  I hope they will come here and we can have a barbecue and the girls can swim! Renee wants all of us to go to brunch at their country club first, that works for us!  The more I move around, the more I can move around.  My friend is having a party. We were planning to leave for camping the day of the party but we will go there first. Olivia and Olya are invited so we will have the camper with us packed and ready to go when we leave the party. We are camping about two hours away so we will have to leave the party in time to set up before dark!  We are camping not too far from where Olya's boyfriend lives so I will tell her to ask Matt's parents if they want to go out to dinner with us on that Sunday night.They are such a nice family and they are so kind to Olya and they treat her so well!  The last time we all went out to dinner, they scooped up the bill so we will have to make sure we scoop it up this time!