Thank you for checking out my podcasts. This is a relatively new venture for me and an expansion of my Blog 'Parkies and me - my journey with Parkinson's'

I started writing the blog about a month after my diagnosis and I look back now and I am so much more settled than I was at the beginning.

So, if you are new to my podcasts and would like to check out my blog - which has probably about 300 posts - going back to the beginning opened my eyes about how raw and scary everything was.

www.parkiesandme.com

I have talked about this before in my blog. Discussing how we made the decision that the time was right to move into a single storey smaller home. For me, there is so little that I/We can control in this journey, even if we exercise etc, that I felt that I needed to have input into when we changed houses and to be fully involved in the choosing of a new home. Time and my health have proven that this has been the right move.

A bit of a sad, reflective post today. But that is what this podcast and my blog have been created for. Not just for the happy times, but also the bare reality of being a person with Parkinson's and other health issues. It is also my acknowledgement, that it is not just me that is affected, it also profoundly affects my husband. He is my rock and my life and I wouldn't want to be without him.

This title may sound defeatist or downbeat at first reading. It is not meant to sound that way. It is, however, my acknowledgement of what my body needs from me to carry me through the rest of my life. To take unnecessary risks and worry my husband and all who love me, would be irresponsible. I want to be able to spend many years yet with all of them and therefore am prepared to modify some of my expectations. There is, however, still much joy to be had in life.

Some musings from my time in hospital

Woohoo! I have made it to 50 podcasts. Pretty good going I say! I hope you enjoy this one. It is the first of the podcasts that came to me whilst in hospital for an operation on my back. I had lots of time to think and lots to experience, so have a few lined up. Hope you enjoy this one.

Just a few thoughts on memories and what can spark them for me. There are lots of things, music, smells, tastes all sorts of ways that memories can be triggered.

Just returned from surgery and just on a week in hospital. Working things up gently, so short podcasts in the interim, as pain permits. This one is about my cousin and I and shopping of course!

Thinking about my operation on Monday and getting ready. Hair done. Shaved my legs and pits. New Pyjamas purchased. All coming together. There is a possibility that I may go to the hospital where I was working up until May last year. Just checking in with myself about how I feel about that.

I don't know why I have never in all these years thought to write a poem about the nightmare that is my giving a blood sample. I have defeated many a cocky phlebotomist (nothing rhymes with that) and I smile quietly to myself when anyone rocks on up expecting to get blood off me.

I hope you enjoy this poem. It made me laugh!