Battle Plans

I’ve been chopping down trees again.

Some people drink when they’re stressed.  Some eat lots and lots of chocolate.  Some people go shopping.  I chop down trees.

I’ve been chopping down trees for days, which means I’ve had a stressful week.  Of course, I don’t chop down any old tree, just because I’m stressed.  If this were the case, we wouldn’t have any trees in our yard.  I chop them down only if they deserve to come down.  These particular trees were elms, covered with black scale, with leaves so eaten by bugs that they resemble lace filigree.  They were not very attractive.

They had also become a bit overgrown.  The previous owners of this property obviously felt that one could never have too many trees.  When we bought the property, we were somewhat naïve as to how much work it would be to keep up with all this vegetation.  Armed with machetes, we explored our new garden, finding a number of hidden treasures such as concrete benches, numerous old coke bottles, a BB gun, and a doorway leading to an ancient underground temple. 

After almost 20 years, we have made quite a lot of headway in our constant battle to keep the vegetation from taking over completely.  We can walk through the trees in our backyard without taking along the machete and without losing our sense of direction.  The elm hedge out front, however, has remained one of our biggest chores.  Elms grow fast.  If we had trimmed them weekly, perhaps we could have kept them at bay; however, this did not happen.  We looked out the window one day and saw that the hedges had shot up to 15 feet, during the overnight rainstorm. 

This wasn’t just an elm hedge; it was an impenetrable elm fortress.  I was getting claustrophobic.

Our neighbor wasn’t so sure of my plans to cut down the hedge.  She looked at me doubtfully and said, “You won’t like it.  It’s going to be so open; you’ll probably get more visitors.”  I didn’t think this was a bad thing at all, so I started working.

After a week of doing battle, armed only with hand pruners and a tree saw, I felt much better.  This is a wonderful way to relieve stress.  I’m surprised it hasn’t been discovered by more people.  Most of the work, I did myself, by hand.  Chris knew better than to interfere.  I cut off the branches, lopped off the tops, and cut down the smaller trees.  I got good and sweaty.  After my hard work was done, Chris came with the chain saw and cut out the trunks of the trees in minutes.

I have learned by past experience to pace myself so that I don’t collapse completely when I’m done.  I worked only for an hour each day, in the cool of the early morning, except for yesterday... and the day before yesterday.  That's when I found myself working in 100 degree weather at noon because I was excited to see the job finished. Today, I collapsed completely.

The yard looks better, too.  As we did in the back yard forest, we found treasures hidden in the elms.  A few lovely honeysuckles, chokecherries, and lilacs were valiantly struggling to survive.  We’ll prune them carefully so they can grow without being crowded and nearly strangled.   There is still plenty of privacy, even more than I need or want. 

Privacy is okay to a point, but I wouldn't ever want to close myself in too much.  My health challenges have made me more aware of how dependent I am on others, both for my physical and emotional health.  I tend to go to the opposite extreme.  Open the doors and windows! Come visit anytime!

I have always enjoyed being with people.  Walking the three blocks home from school as a teenager, I often found reason to dawdle on my way.  When I arrived home at 5 or 6 pm, my mom would not be worried.  She knew I had stopped to chat with someone.  I got to know a lot of people.  One of my regular stops was to see the Hageman’s.  Mr. Hageman was my special friend and he and his wife became my neighborhood grandparents.  Mr. Hageman always told me that he wanted to be there when I "walked down the aisle”.  Unfortunately, he died too soon, but we included his favorite hymns in our wedding ceremony.  There were others, too, customers from my paper route, and school friends.  I learned very early that everyone has stories to tell. 

Now that our elm hedge has been taken down, I don’t have any more trees I can start attacking when I have a stressful day.  I’m not worried. I’ll find something to do.  If I get desperate, Chris will find some work for me.  In the meantime, our yard is so open now. Maybe we will get more visitors. 

That would be fine with me.  I love listening to stories.  That's nice after a stressful week, too.



John Argue - Parkinson's Disease and the Art of Moving

Here is the link to John Argue's website:

http://www.johnargue.com/argue_bio.html

Exercise is a walk in the park for Parkinson’s

In April, my daughter and I watched our friend, Teddy, cross the finish line as he completed his first half marathon run.  I couldn’t even begin to imagine running that far, much less doing it in just over two hours.   One of the benefits of having Parkinson’s disease, I have always said, is that no one will ever expect me to run a marathon.  I was tempted to change my thinking on this however, as I got caught up in the excitement and, in that moment, I wished I could run, too. 

Last weekend was the “Shake, Rattle, and Stroll” walk for Parkinson’s disease in Denver.  It was a 5K walk to raise money for the Parkinson’s Association of the Rockies – or PAR.  PAR is a great organization.  They offer a number of different exercise classes and many other services.  It’s the emphasis on exercise that really interests me right now.   

Exercise is arguably one of the most helpful treatments for Parkinson’s disease.  One person who believes this strongly is John Argue.  Mr. Argue has been teaching movement and voice for people with Parkinson’s since 1985.  His approach reflects his broad experience with yoga, tai chi, and dance, and is brought with a gentle humor and imagination, as he encourages his students to “make friends with the floor”.   As in our yoga class, the goal is to make us aware of how we are moving. 

Our yoga teacher, Paul Zeiger, led us through some of Mr. Argue’s exercises this week.  As a former kindergarten teacher, I was intrigued when the exercises included imagination.  One exercise had us leaning to one side and picking up the little mouse by the back chair leg.  Then we went to the other side and picked up the mouse’s wife.  Here is where I had my only issue with the verbal instructions to this exercise.  Having picked up these mice, we then were simply instructed in the next move.  I sat there puzzled for a second or two.  What do I do with the mice?  Nearly twenty years of leading movement circles with young children and creating imaginative stories for circle time had its effect, and I had to mentally let the mice go before I could move on to the next exercise.

Joining the yoga class and becoming aware of all the times when I can "exercise" by doing my daily living activities with conscious movement has made a huge difference in how I feel, both physically and emotionally.  People who haven't seen me for awhile are amazed at how much better I look and how well I am moving.  I'm not so sure that I am really moving all that well, but I think what people notice is that I am standing up straighter.  It’s amazing how much more confident I feel when I stand up straight.  The PAR sponsored yoga class has gone a long ways in improving my quality of life with Parkinson’s disease.

This is why we wanted to support the "Shake, Rattle, and Stroll" walk for Parkinson's disease last weekend.  I was excited about walking, too.  Maybe I was still caught up a little in the thrill of watching the half marathon in April, but I thought that just maybe I could do it. 

The night before the walk, I went over my list of necessary items to bring along:  water bottle, medicines, hat, sleeping bag, camp stove, food, a towel, and a pointy stick.  I started gathering everything together and was just rolling up the sleeping bag when Chris stopped me. 

“What are you doing?” 

I showed him my list.  He didn’t seem to understand why I needed some of the items. 

“Come on,” I told him, “it’s a 5K walk.  That’s over THREE MILES!  You know how slow I am.  What if I don’t finish by nightfall?” 

“Oka-a-ay,” he said, doubtfully, “so the sleeping bag is to sleep in, the stove for cooking, and the food to eat.  Why are you packing a pointy stick?” 

“In case we run out of food,” I had thought that would have been obvious.  I wasn’t sure if there were fish in the lake, but I knew there were more than enough squirrels around.  If we were desperate we could always have squirrel on a stick, roasted nicely over the camp stove.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to take your scooter?” my husband logically intervened. 

I sadly put all my supplies away, except for the water bottle and hat, and we loaded the scooter in the trunk of the car.  Emma agreed to ride the scooter while I walked as far as I could.  The preparations done, we had a lovely surprise a few minutes later, when Teddy called to let us know he’d be joining us for the walk.  Another dear friend, Marie, had also promised to join us.  It would be a great time!

It was a great time.  We warmed up with yoga and tai chi in the park and then started on our way.  I made it halfway through the first 1K before starting into my “losing at Twister” impression then rode my scooter till we were close to the end.  I let Chris take the scooter as I walked across the finish line. 

I know that, compared to a half marathon, that this was just a walk in the park.  I was pleased with my accomplishment, however, and will work towards being able to walk an entire 1K next year.  That’s enough of a marathon for me!



FCC and FDA to hold Public Meeting about Regulatory Issues concerning Medical Devices

http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/NewsEvents/WorkshopsConferences/ucm215046.htm

I wanted to post this for anyone interested in the issues of implanted medical devices, such as with the DBS surgery, and electrical frequencies that can interfere with these devices.  Gary Olhoeft (see other entries with his name) has sent this on.

Celebrating movement!

I was lucky enough to see Peter Davison perform several times at our school over the years.  He is absolutely amazing to watch!  As movement is sometimes difficult for me, I love to watch someone like Peter Davison move with such beauty and grace.  ENJOY!

Another person who is amazing to watch is a former student of mine, Dylan Baker.  His stunt work will be seen in the upcoming movie, "Freerunner".