Christmas Present

Bill and I have been given a wonderful Christmas present of sorts.

When Bill had his semiannual checkup at his neurologist’s office for his Parkinson’s, they added a new medication to his repertoire. They said this particular medication should significantly help his symptoms, something his other meds didn’t seem particularly good at doing. He began taking the medication, very low dose at first and working up to what is his full dose for now (it can and likely will be changed later).

Parkinson’s can have many symptoms. Someone with Parkinson’s can have any or all, no rhyme or reason. For Bill, his primary symptoms have always been slowness and loss of fine motor skills. He has others, but those are the two that are most evident and troublesome. There isn’t a thing he can’t do by himself, but lots of things take much longer – buttoning his shirts, buckling his seatbelt, cutting food, and so forth. Sometimes he has me help, but often he does it himself. He never complains. Not one single time.

I have been noticing his symptoms decreasing over the past weeks, but I’m not sure it has been as apparent to him. But at dinner the other night, he was eating chicken parmigiana with a side of spaghetti. All of the sudden, Bill says to me, “Kris, look at my spaghetti.” He was entirely able to eat spaghetti by rolling it on his fork, just as he used to eat it. He had the biggest grin on his face.

I tend to look at the negative side of things. When it comes to Bill’s PD, I often focus on myself and how his disease has impacted me. But suddenly it became clear just how tired he must get of always being slow and having to struggle with tasks. His smile opened my eyes to how much joy he must feel to be able to do simple things again.

This medication is tricky. While miraculous, as time goes on, it could take a higher and higher dose to work effectively. But this is where I have to nip my reflex to concentrate on what-ifs and just be ever-so-jubilant at the what-ares! Up to this point, his progression has been slow. He hasn’t had any of the potential side effects of any of his medications. There is every reason to hope that this medication will work for a very long time. And he is still on a really low dose, we have room to grow. God is good.

I have one funny grandkid story, as I often do. And, as usual, it involves Mylee.

I took Kaiya and Mylee to Lollypop Park yesterday afternoon, after a meal at McDonald’s. Lollypop Park is an indoor amusement park designed for little kids. They have a little ferris wheel, spinning teacups, swings that go around in a circle, a carousel, a train, and a little roller coaster. On the way there, I explained to the girls that Nana would NOT be accompanying them on the teacups this time as they made me really dizzy and sick the last time.

When we got there, they both immediately ran to the teacups and climbed into one. I watched them spin and spin and took a couple of photos. I was deleting some of the more blurry photos (they are in motion, after all) when they got off. I saw that Mylee was covered in vomit, but with a grin on her face. Yes, friends, she had tossed her cookies (well really, her McDonald’s cheeseburger) on the teacup. I washed her off in the bathroom the best I could, and she was raring to go. No more teacups, I instructed firmly.

This photo must have been taken immediately before Project Throw up. The look on her face tells it all.

Little girlfriend did not smell like a rose the rest of the afternoon.

Have a great weekend!