Life is Not a Dress Rehearsal (or the Perils of Procrastination)

Posted on by Patient Commando

By Jo Collinge

This blog is dedicated to the memory of my huband’s nephew, Christopher, taken from this life at the age of only 32.

When I first met the late great Susie Sharman she was wearing a t-shirt which had emblazoned across it “Life is Not a Dress Rehearsal”. How right she was – Susie had more than her fair share of trials and tribulations over the following 20 years of our friendship, but she always lived every day as if it were her last, until her last day came when she slipped peacefully away.

I’m certainly guilty myself of “getting it wrong” over the years – but its from our mistakes that we learn and hopefully move on……Its not doing anything about those mistakes where problems can manifest and at times fester. Tim, having “divorced” himself from his immediate family, had not seen or spoken to his sister, Tanya, or his niece or nephews for five years. At the time, I decided not to get involved but did say to my sister-in-law to keep in touch if she ever needed anything. Since then, we haven’t spoken as such, but more texted each other every now and then, including when I was [...] continue the story

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Letting the Grass Grow Under My Feet

Posted on by Patient Commando

By Jo Collinge

I hate to admit it, it has been quite some time since I last blogged…. in fact I had originally started this blog two weeks ago, but after what has not been such a good day in the Collinge household I decided to sit down and make an effort to finish and publish before I go to bed.

I have been so busy I haven’t had a moment to draw breath, let alone sit down at my pc and write anything – including sending an email to my oldest and dearest school friend to wish her a happy birthday a few weeks ago. Well – that is a lie about the blogs – I have sat down and started a few over the last month, but have never actually succeeded in finishing any.

This blog was originally started at the end of a very frustrating week for me – I had been experiencing weird things going on with my left foot, where it keeps rolling unnaturally on to its outer edge, with my toes going in to spasm and the pain of muscle cramp frankly worse than childbirth. It seems to happen just before my meds are due, especially [...] continue the story

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Will I never learn?

Posted on by Patient Commando

By Jo Collinge Will I never learn that too much wine, or any at all for that matter, is not good for me. It’s Sunday morning, ten to six, I’ve been up for the last 45 minutes feeling much better than this time yesterday. Friday night had been busier than usual – Tae Kwon Do (on my own this time without Antonia, she had a better offer for a night out playing Bingo of all things with Tim and Elise) followed by a very quick very cold shower at the sports centre and then round to Karen’s for the monthly book club get together.

The book under review this time was “One Day” by David Nicholls. If you haven’t read it, do. It really is very very good. (OK and that’s enough of the superlatives.) I hate to admit it, I cried at the end. I know when I’m on to a good read if I start dreaming about it, and when I’ve finished I can’t start another for at least a few days whilst I get thoughts of the former out of my head, which is what happened with this particular book. I didn’t get home too late, about an hour [...] continue the story

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Life Love Laughter and Learning

Posted on by Patient Commando

By Jo Collinge

I Love my Life, especially when it is filled with Laughter. I’m Learning to Live my Life with Parkinson’s, to challenge it as well as accommodate all the uncertainties that it brings.

It’s been quite a while since I have woken up in the middle of the night with a blog there in my head, ready and waiting to be written. When that happens, I have to get up, log on, and type it up before I forget what I want to say. The result is this, and replaces its former version, originally drafted about a week ago but not published, and titled “Exercise and Parkinson’s”. How dull is that, and my boring rambling spiel on the benefits of exercise and endorphins has been well and truly ditched in favour of this.

A couple of weeks ago, I woke, as usual, stiff and in pain, somewhere between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning, in urgent need of a call of nature. Having managed to lever myself out of bed, thanks to the re-positioning of my bedside cabinet about a month ago, I shuffled off to the bathroom, stopping off en-route to the loo for my usual early-morning bleary-eyed inspection in [...] continue the story

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The Price of Complacency and Being Wobbly

Posted on by Patient Commando

By Jo Collinge

This blog was first published following the World Parkinson’s Congress held in Glasgow, September 2010…………. It was then republished about a year later, with a lengthy addition tagged on to the end about challenging my specialist on his views about DBS. This is – more or less – the original version.

Two weeks prior to [originally] writing this my elder daughter sat exams to win a Bursary at a well known independent girls’ school. She was one of a handful of girls chosen to sit these (well, two handfuls to be precise ….). A fantastic achievement as she was selected from a number who had applied. Having taken the approach that she was going to “get by” on her natural ability, of which she has plenty, she took the decision not to do any prep work. My husband and I tried, but failed, to get her to “knuckle down”. Elise’s approach to such matters is that she works hard at school, therefore why should she work hard at home. Being reluctant to make a big fuss over the issue, we took the path of least resistance and didn’t force the issue. [On top of that, I had also spent [...] continue the story

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