Me and PD #8

    Well readers, here is my surprise I promised you! His name is Buddy, and he is a Greater Mountain Swiss Dog, or Swissy. He is five weeks old in this picture, and on June 26th he will fly from Pennsylvania to start his new life with us. They are very big dogs ( notice the feet! ). His dad was a 150 lbs. and mom was 120. They are absolutely one of  the most gentle and loyal dogs you can get. They are used a lot as rescue dogs, but were originally used for farm work in Switzerland. Buddy and I are going to try and train him to be a therapy dog, hopefully to visit sick children in hospitals. Not only will he be good therapy for them, but hopefully for me too. He will force me to be more active and get my butt out of the house and go for walks. I can't wait to see the looks on my neighbors faces when they see me walking a dog the size of a pony! I know it will be a lot of work at first, but we are dog lovers, and we decided one more time, this will be our last dog! I'll keep you updated on his growth and training. We have been to the pet store, and have purchased a crate for him, that with the divider allowing for growth taken out, I can sleep in! We look forward to Buddy being a loved and loving member of our family!

     As far as my PD since I last blogged, it remains about the same. I have tried to be more diligent about taking my meds at exactly the same time every day, and have noticed a slight improvement in my symptoms. Also I have started a new diet to lose weight, this is killing me! Did you know you are supposed to eat food according to proportions instead of trying to eat everything in sight? What a new concept for me! My goal is 50 lbs. and I will keep you posted on my progress, right now I'm at 250. I will try to blog weekly, but may be too weak from dieting to type! So there's a lot going on in my life right now, I hope I survive. Thanks for listening and stay tuned!



Me and PD #7

     Well, here I am again telling you my woes of having Parkinson's Disease! Actually this disease has made me realize just how fragile and complex the human body is! It's hard to imagine, that missing a few cells in the brain can lead to uncontrollable muscle movements,
rigidity,depression,lack of facial expression, loss of balance, smaller handwriting and numerous other symptoms. This is such a complex disease that no two people have the exact same symptoms and there are about 1.2 million people in the U.S. alone that have PD! Plus from the onset of this disease until diagnosis, could be anywhere from 2 to 10 years! I was diagnosed a little over 2 years ago, but probably had it about 6 or 7 years ago. People always told me the bad habits I had when I was younger would destroy my brain cells, but I never listened. What's next hairy palms? Oh well, life is a challenge and you work with what you got, sometimes it's just a little harder. I still consider myself fortunate to have what I have in life and always will. I still have a surprise for my readers this month, and will probably divulge my secret in my next blog. Until then stay tuned and thanks for listening.