The Letter P

I'm not really sure what to post for Pink Saturday, but as the theme says "anything goes" I'm going to share a little bit about what Carl and I are dealing with, Parkinson's Disease.

He was diagnosed with Parkinson's in June, 2018, he had tremors for a few years before that, though.  It was pretty devastating news to be honest.  Who dreams they will get that kind of news?  I decided to dive in head first and research, research and research some more.

One of the first things I found out about is the Davis Phinney Foundation.  Davis Phinney was a championship cyclist diagnosed with early onset about 20 or so years ago.  This foundation has a plethora of information available, and Carl and I attended a seminar here in Reno in March.  It has been so helpful!  I highly recommend starting here.

Along with his Parkinson's diagnosis, Carl also has mild dementia.  This scares me more than the Parkinson's!  His mom passed from Alzheimer's, so that of course is my first thought.  Carl has a different kind of dementia, her behavior was so different and he just doesn't have the symptoms of Alzheimers, at least not yet so we cross our fingers and pray it doesn't come to that.

We made the decision right away to live like we planned.  Enjoy our family and friends, travel when we can until we can't, and just live each day the best we can.  I don't know where this journey will take us, but we will travel it together!

Please visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound and see what all the Pinkies are posting today!  Thank you for visiting me and I love to read your comments!

 

 

 

Grandkids!

Last week Jackson and Grace spent the week with us.  We get them for a week during the summer, and usually for a week after the Christmas holiday.  Gives their folks a break and gives us time to really, really spoil them!

We did some fun things!

 We ate out at Steak and Shake:

 We went to the Splash Park:

We took a nap, sort of!

 We played with Prince, he loves the kids!

 We played with Mimi's neighbor Kinley

 

 We went bowling!

 

We took a selfie

 

 We watched SpongeBob!

 We went to see Aladdin at the movies!

 

 We rode the ferris wheel at Scheel's

Grace and I got Manicures and Pedicures! 

 

 We ate lots of ice cream! 

 A fun week and boy were Carl and tired!

 

 

Dreams

I have the strangest dreams!  Some are kind of funny and weird, but most of them are strange and disturbing.  I wake up in a sweat and kind of panicky.  I need my sleep, I am caregiver to my husband and really, really would love to get a decent night's sleep. Ugh.

I think they are caused by one of the medications that I take at bedtime, Risperidone.  It's a psych med.  I've talked to my dr about stopping it, also WHY am I taking it...what does it do for me.  I never got a good answer, only solution was to try taking it in the morning.  I said to him, well I can't very well sleep the day away if it makes me drowsy  So I am going to talk to him about it again and get more answers.  Anymore I am for less meds the better.  I am afflicted with depression and anxiety disorder, but I am doing really remarkably well at this point, I am willing to wean off this one medication and see how I do.  When I looked it up on Google, it said it was for Schizophrenia!  Yikes!

Do you have weird dreams, too?  Any suggestions are welcomed!