Some days it feels like I am a bit "dad-obsessed"... but bear with me! Following the afternoon/evening at ER on Friday, I spend Saturday assisting on a wedding. By Saturday night, you pretty much had to scrape me off the floor, I was that useless! Fast forward to Sunday afternoon and I stopped in to see dad for Father's Day. If he wasn't... you guessed it... trying to escape from his bed again! I did not know what I would find, given his confused and agitated state when I left him on Friday. When the nurses came in to help him out of bed, they told me he'd been chatty that day. And if he wasn't bright eyed and bushy-tailed! The best I have seen him in quite a while. The change of scenery must have agreed with him! I had better conversation and comprehension with him than I have had in a while. I had told him I couldn't stay long, but that I would be back tomorrow for the Father's Day surprise. A little while later he said, "Well, I guess it's time you got going then." Wow... he remembered and had a comprehension of time. I was a bit loathe to leave with him in such good spirits. I just hope he is having a good day tomorrow as well, so he can enjoy his surprise...
The start of Parkinson's Awareness Week, 2-9 September, coincides nicely with Father's Day. Now, I am having second doubts that it is Parkinson's Awareness week, but I read it on the Government of Australia website, so I am going with that. I was so angry with the disease last week, and dad voiced his disappointment in the disease today. Anger solves nothing, so I am going to redirect that energy and use this platform this week to bring awareness to the disease.
The following is an exerpt from Michael J Fox Foundation on what Parkinson's Disease is. The original link can be found here.
Parkinson's disease is a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder that affects one in 100 people over age 60. While the average age at onset is 60, people have been diagnosed as young as 18.
Parkinson's disease was first characterized extensively by an English doctor, James Parkinson, in 1817. Today, we understand Parkinson's disease to be a disorder of the central nervous system that results from the loss of cells in various parts of the brain, including a region called the substantia nigra. The substantia nigra cells produce dopamine, a chemical messenger responsible for transmitting signals within the brain that allow for coordination of movement. Loss of dopamine causes neurons to fire without normal control, leaving patients less able to direct or control their movement. Parkinson's disease is one of several diseases categorized by clinicians as movement disorders.
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