Parkinsonism

Parkinsonism, body thermostats, and the bitch.

by jmgoyder

The other day, when Anthony was home for lunch and the afternoon, and Ming and I were trying to get the living room warm enough for him, I became a bit impatient. We had a roaring fire going, a heater on, and two blankets on his knees, but he was still shivering with cold in a room so hot that I was soaked with perspiration.

– Your thermostat’s had the bomb, Ants! I accidentally sort of yelled this as I was wrapping the stupid blankets under and around his feet.

– Mum, don’t be such a bitch! Yes, that came from Ming of course.

– Ants, can you tell Ming not to ever again call me a bitch?

And then Anthony said very clearly, I think, that in this context, it’s acceptable.

Shared laughter immediately thrilled its way through that hot room!

Family Friendship Happiness LOVE STORY Marriage Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease dementia

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by jmgoyder

I am finding it very difficult to talk/write about this without crumbling into a teary mess of memories. Hopefully, it will be okay if I just post short glimpses of how Anthony’s Parkinsonism revealed itself. It’s not all tragic, of course, and we continue to have many comic moments.

My first memory of something being amiss with my macho-machine husband was when he couldn’t open the Vegemite jar for our morning toast. I even remember teasing Anthony which, in retrospect, seems cruel, but we had a buoyantly bantery relationship, a beautiful little son, and I was adept at opening jars of Vegemite for Ming.

Little did we know then that Parkinsonism had moved into the spare room.

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Parkinson’s paradoxes

by jmgoyder

When most people hear the term ‘Parkinson’s Disease’, they tend to think of Michael J Fox and the Parkinson’s that make you shake, move haphazardly or suffer debilitating tremors. Anthony’s type of PD is not like that and is often termed ‘Parkinsonism’. His symptoms have included a dramatic loss of movement. In many ways this is a kinder PD because of the lack of tremors but on the other hand the crippling immobility of brain/body has been a long, slow series of gradual shocks. First his hands couldn’t do things like open a jar of vegemite, steer a car, operate a chainsaw; then his face stopped ‘working’ in the sense that he no longer smiled and he stopped blinking, so that his eyes took on a blank look. I have already written about some of these things in previous posts so I won’t repeat myself.

One of the most noticeable things about Anthony’s PD is his stillness. Before the nursing lodge he would sit for hours on the front verandah in complete stillness. Sometimes he would be so still that the blue wrens would alight on his lap not realizing he was a human. Sometimes he would be so still I would think he’d died. Sometimes he would be so still he would drop his cup of tea.

Well, today I took Gutsy9, the baby peacock, in again to see Ants at the nursing lodge and guess who loved Anthony’s stillness?