Waking in the morning, for many Parkinson's
patients is an agonising experience, for during the night, the body becomes stiff
and rigid, therefore moving in bed or attempting to get up can be very difficult. I
almost feel like the tin man in The Wizard of Oz, creaking and needing oiled joints
to loosen the rigidity. If only it were that easy! It's hard to find a
comfortable position in bed, and should I want to change positions, it's
painful moving. Once up and out of bed, after a while I loosen up a little, but
my balance is poor, and have fallen several times recently. Thankfully each
time I've been lucky and had a soft landing. Moving house recently has really
taken it out of me, and my energy levels are at an all time low. Some days I feel as if I am
running on an empty tank and in slow motion. I used to be so organised and
quick, a master of multi tasking. Now things are very different, and I'm lucky
if I manage to complete something at all, before getting distracted or losing
focus on what I am doing. But all this comes with the territory - Parkinson's has many symptoms and stages, and each
patient is a different story, so I was surprised to read that there are five
stages of Parkinson's:
Symptoms in one side of the body,
poor posture, shaking and tremors.
Affecting both sides of the body,
daily tasks difficult to perform.
Balance and impairment - mild to
moderate slow movement.
Severe disability - balance and
movement.
Wheelchair bound - not able to
take care of oneself.
My latest article appears in The Huffington Post if you'd like to take a look.
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