First a word about the new “Resources for PD” tab above this (or any) post.  I have added a page with links to the major organizations that provide PD support.  Every one of them can provide a wealth of information for patients and caregivers and most provide both web based information or you can call their 800 number for assistance.  By no means is this a complete list and I plan to update the list as I find new sources but I hope it will be beneficial, whether you are newly diagnosed and looking for as much information as you can find or you just have a question about a new symptom.  Check it out when you get a chance. And yes the list of blogs I follow is still coming, soon I hope 🙂

We have returned from a great trip to Colorado, Oregon and Washington to see family and friends.  During our short Colorado visit we saw daughter Holly and the grandkids, celebrated grandson Charlies 15th birthday and had lunch with my sisters and my nephew Michael and his wife, Kelsie, whom we hadn’t seen in several visits.  Michael is a wonderful nature photographer and you can check out his work at Timberline Images.  We also met other friends for breakfast, lunch, or dinner so it was a packed few days before we flew on to the Pacific Northwest.

Upon arriving at the Seattle airport, we drove to Prineville, Oregon to meet up with our close friend Ed who has wanted us to visit for years.  He lives on a hillside with a beautiful view of the surrounding area from a large deck.  We were treated like royalty as our visit included a steak and elk dinner on the deck with some of Ed’s friends, a fun dinner at The Red Martini and a massage!  The massage was wonderful and loosened up my back and neck plus I had a good conversation with the therapist about Parkinson’s and rigidity, you know me, always spreading the word 🙂

 

We then returned to Seattle for a fun week with our two youngest grand children Angelina and Ariana, oh, and their parents, Dale and Monica.  We had a wonderful time with the kids during the last week of summer before school started. We again were treated like royalty, enjoying many fine meals, taking the girls shopping for school clothes, and Dale and I might have hit a brew pub or two 🙂  Best of all, we had time to visit and enjoy each others company.  It was a good time and even the Seattle weather was great.

This was my second trip across multiple time zones since my diagnosis.  Strangely, I found that gaining the two hours on the outbound trip to Colorado affected my fatigue level on the next day more than I would have expected.  I tried to take my medication every six hours on the travel day, without regard to the actual time of day but the next day I was wiped out by early evening.  Just before we left I visited the neurologist and he doubled my Mirapex dose to 1.5 mg three times a day, so that may also have been a factor. The one hour time change to the Northwest didn’t have any noticeable affect and I again tried to keep taking the medication 6 hours apart.  Flying home where I lost 3 hours did not seem to have the fatigue effect either but we didn’t have visits and dinners etc. to attend the next day so that may be the difference.  I did make sure I had my Aware in Care kit (available here from NPF) and extra medication in my carry on, just in case.

Next week, Mara and I will attend the Michael J Fox Foundation/AbbVie Partners in Parkinson’s event in Atlanta where we will be on the panel for a breakout session entitled ‘Building Connections with Family, Friends and Community’.  Topics will include how we dealt with the diagnosis, how we communicated with family and friends and what we have done to connect with the Parkinson’s community. We are excited to participate but at the same time we are a bit nervous as we understand that they are expecting over 600 attendees!  By the way, there is still time to register for this event if you are near the Atlanta area, or for one of the six remaining events held around the country, check the website link above for details.  I will write a blog post devoted to the event and our participation on the panel so stay tuned!