A Day In the Life With Parkinson's and Sciatica

        I never remember before I had Parkinson's if I naturally opened my eyes in the morning when I woke up. Now I wake up and actually have to tell/force myself to open my eyes. I think that was just an automatic process before Parkinson's.  I lay there for a few minutes and have to try to turn over to get out of bed. Sometimes I forget I have Parkinson's for just a moment but then it all comes rushing in!! My leg and hip area just throbbed form sciatica pain.  I NEVER forget I have Sciatica! I think there is a definite link between Parkinson's and Sciatica! Then I start the long process of showering and getting dressed. That takes me a  minimum of an hour, usually much longer. This morning I dropped two pills and dropped my deodorant. It wasn't fun having to bend over to retrieve them. I considered leaving them on the floor but I knew it would bother me all day if I did!  Every night I put a load of clothes that need to be washed at the top of the steps in a laundry basket and my husband puts them in the washer before he goes to work.  If I forget to do that, it takes me about twenty minutes to sort and gather a load and then throw it down the steps. Then it takes me another twenty minutes to carry parts of the load to the washer! I have a walker with a cart to carry them. This is boring to write and will be boring for people to read but it is my life now.  I come slowly downstairs one step at a time and put the clothes in the dryer. I have a walker upstairs and a walker downstairs.  I run my Roomba almost everyday because I am anal about my house being clean.  Today I carried the Rooomba on my walker to put down in the hallway! As  I was putting it down I started to fall and was thinking, "this is not good!" As I lifted the Roomba from the walker cart,  I fell forward and used my arm to steady myself a bit but I fell onto the floor, a small fall,  and the floor was carpeted. Then I went into the kitchen to tidy up a bit. I wanted to Windex my appliances but I just felt so tired so I went and sat down and decided to blog instead.  We are going out to dinner tonight because my daughter Olya LOVES crabs and she will be going back to college soon.  We go to a great local restaurant and Mondays are "all you can eat" crabs! I have to take it easy today because I  want to go out tonight and NOT have to use my walker.  I will take two Tylenol before we go to have my sciatica pain subside a tiny bit. I now have Dan drop me off at the door wherever we are going unless there is a handicap spot near the door and I have my placard with me. I usually forget to get it out of my car! I don't know if handicapped people are permitted to get two placards so I would have one for each car! I NEVER ever parked in handicap spots when I didn't have this awful disease.  The handicap spots didn't also have poles years ago, they just had the marks of a wheelchair on the ground. One day, many many years ago, I parked and went into Wendys to get lunch for my  kids. It was a huge thunderstorm and raining like crazy!! I had my baby daughter Renee with me and my then 4 year old daughter Amy with me too. When we came out of Wendys, I said to Amy, "OMG, I accidentally parked in a handicap spot, I didn't see it when we went in!" A few weeks later, I parked somewhere and a cop was parked next to me. He had his window down,  Amy rolled her window down and said to the officer, "My mom parked in a handicap spot last week." He just smiled and gave me a quick chuckle, as I said to him, "it was totally by accident." As soon as I am finished blogging this post, I will go clean the kitchen appliances and then eat lunch and sit and read my book. Later I will go to the drug store to pick up my meds that needed refilling! I know my life is now so different than I ever thought it would be. Sciatica and Parkinson's are always with me.
        I don't know if these issues are related to Parkinson's or not. I notice a lot that I close my right eye,  I don't know why but I do it. I also notice that I click my teeth back and forth from side to side(weird I know) and I have to force myself to stop.
     

 When I was at my last neurologist visit, he asked me if I acted out my dreams. I said "no,"  I didn't think I was doing that. Last night I fell asleep on the couch and I was sitting up.  I dreamed I was tossing something to my husband and I woke myself up because I swung my arm upward for the toss!

     

           The book club was so much fun last night!  My friend Jackie came out to help me walk in and carry my snack. I told her I didn't need help, but I might still be sitting there if she didn't come out!!!! Her street is a bit of a hill and I couldn't pull myself up and get out  of my car with the bag of snacks.(And it is ALWAYS about the food!)   The discussion was so much fun, I forgot about Sciatica once I sat down.  It came back when I got up!  However, I was able to "walk through the pain" to get to the snacks!! We are reading a spooky book for the next meeting because our friend Carolyn hosts and she does her house up so wonderfully for Halloween!! I hope I don't act out any weird things from the book in my sleep!