have a lovely weekend

Fall is humming along. Now that Halloween is done I’m sure it will be wall to wall advertising for holiday shopping. I’m not immune, but I try to not impulse buy and find that putting a lag time on purchases really reduces the urge. Not that I buy a ton of stuff, but last year I figured out that I ended up buying just as much stuff for me or my house as I do for others. Oh well, ho ho ho.

Last weekend we spent a lovely couple of days at a beach cottage with family. Sitting by the beach with a cup of coffee, watching the sunrise in the photo was magical. I got the best exercise from a $4 rubber ball that I bought from Walmart. It was very soft so it was easy to catch and throw, and hit like a volleyball. It was fun and felt like playing in the park as a kid. It’s definitely a keeper that I will try to incorporate into my exercise tool kit.

My PD subject this week is pain. I signed up for a pain clinic sponsored by APDA that was put on by Beyond Rehab and it’s founder, Apurva Zawar. Apurva did a great job in helping me with a few things. Pain with PD can be caused by many things and present itself differently for each of us. It can be acute, chronic, dull aches, sharp pain, numbing, tingling, caused by dystonia, postural issues, on and on. But prior to this I would normally describe my pain generically like, my leg hurts or when asked to put a number to my pain from 1-10, I always thought, compared to what? So parsing out and writing down the specific type of pain as I have it, is allowing me to better acknowledge and in the future communicate it better to my health care advisors. Also things like does it happen at a certain time of day, or when I’m having an off period, and how long it lasts are things to look at. It also helps me to put the pain in better perspective in my own mind.

Then knowing better what it is, I can try strategies to help deal, lesson, and get through the pain better. For example, for some pain, distraction is the best method. I do something that will take my mind of it until it passes. Sometimes doing something physical can help alleviate it. Some of my back pain is caused from postural issues, so going through my posture checklist along with doing exercises that are keeping my back and abdominal muscles help. Meditation is another tool that has been helpful to me, and this may sound strange, by leaning into the pain and just sitting with it. These I’m sure are just a few examples and I have much more to learn about the pain process, but I’m interested because pain will likely continue to play an prominent role in my symptoms and what I see too often is someone starting to avoid doing beneficial things like exercise and socializing, to help them avoid pain.

Lastly, I have two streaming shows to recommend and a book. Human Playground is a 6-episode documentary about the role of games and playing throughout human history. It’s fascinating to see games from around the world, many of them I’ve never heard of and what we learn from them. The other is The Patient which is a suspense limited series starring Steve Carell. He plays a therapist who gets kidnapped by a serial killer, who wants him to provide therapy to him and help him stop killing. It’s filmed mostly in one setting so it’s almost like a play and it’s really a show about their interaction and relationship. The book is Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley. If you’re an Agatha Christie fan, you’ll enjoy this book but part of the enjoyment was listening to it on audio narrated by the fantastic British historian Lucy Worsley. You may know her from all the BBC programs she hosted about British royal history.

I hope all is well with you. Drop a line and say hello and let me know what you’re up to, it always brings me a smile.