Cass and her mum have had a few entertaining outings recently, also meeting up with her sister Kristin and having special home-made dessert, Cassy's signature pavlova! Cassy and Valerie meet up quite regularly, often combining it with some shopping or lunch or coffees. It's a little hard sometimes to find a window in Valerie's hectic social life for them to meet: her dizzying array of social outings makes me tired just thinking about it!
We've been travelling down to Sydney on a weekly basis to have further consultations with the neurologist and tweaking of my equipment. The frustrating part is that there seems to be a narrow therapeutic window when the apparatus is tweaked which lasts an hour or two, and then symptoms slowly re-appear, sometimes quite ferociously! It seems to happen only when we board the train for home, not when we're in the doctor's office.
We're certainly experts on Hornsby and St. Leonard's stations now, and one small bonus is that we often buy a couple of canelé at a little patisserie outside, quite often buying them before we visit the doctor as they tend to sell out: they're so delicious!
So, I continue to mark time. I feel a little like I'm treading water watching perfect waves rolling by without catching them. Unfortunately, I can usually only control my neck spasms for an hour or two, tops, which precludes any meaningful social activity, or longer outings. The football is difficult, lunches or dinners similarly difficult as I also tend to choke a little on food sometimes, and concerts are a source of frustration as I also tend to shake! I can, however, just about cope with the boys monthly coffee meeting and a short walk most days. I also prep myself up on Monday mornings in order to attend my exercise physiology class for an hour. This seems very beneficial, as it is targeted for people with Parkinson's and has lots of strength, balance and co-ordination activities. The girls are all very friendly, kind and understanding as well as experts in that area.
Cassy is actually away at the moment in Adelaide where she is visiting her great friend, Kristin, who is back from Taipei on her summer break. Kristin and Naden are actually off on a tour of the "Five Stans" later this week, so there was only a very narrow window when she was free. They're staying at a fancy hotel, have already dined at a Thai restaurant in Adelaide last night and today are doing a luxury private tour of various vineyards! I'm going to pick her up on her return to Newcastle Airport tomorrow afternoon.
Hopefully, I'll have better news to report next time...if so, I'll manage to do a lot more too, I imagine!