Author: ceddammit

I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease (PD) in January of 2015, at the age of 42. Five years later, the progression of PD forced me into an early retirement. It was almost another two years before I finally made this blog happen.

New Probiotic (Neuralli) Fights Parkinson’s Disease

· 1 Comment ·

Let’s try a serious Parkinson’s-related post. I haven’t done that in awhile.

I recently got an email from one of the Parkinson’s-related charities that I’ve subscribed to (I can’t remember which one) that talked about a probiotic that has been found to reduce the symptoms of Parkinson’s. I had to follow a slight maze of links, as the manufacturer of this probiotic was recently bought by another company, and the product name has been changed. The product is currently called Neuralli, with the important ingredient being a probiotic called PS128. Their web site leaves something to be desired, but I was able to order a one-month supply. I don’t remember exactly how long it took to arrive, but it seems to me that it was longer than I had expected.

Once it arrived, it only took a few days before my off periods were less noticeable. I had more energy and less anxiety than I normally do when my levodopa is wearing off. I ran out of the initial supply of Neuralli about a week ago, and my off periods seem to be getting worse again. So I can honestly say that Neuralli seems to help. But it ain’t cheap. That said, I have ordered more; I just hope it gets here before my upcoming Colorado trip.

Here’s the news article.

UPDATE: My second shipment took less than two days – arriving a full week before my trip.

Rambunctious Dog and Weird Metallica Cover

· Leave a comment ·

My dog is being rambunctious again. Maybe I should get some video of him being rambunctious, but it’s so short-lived that I doubt I could ever catch it. And now, as if to illustrate my point, the rambunctiousness has given way to howling at distant sirens. What type of sirens? Fire? Ambulance? Police? Nope. Those are definitely air raid sirens. The British are coming! The British are coming! Let’s see, how did that go? One if by land, two if by sea, 3.14 if by air?

On an unrelated note: I wonder if there are any a cappella heavy metal groups

NOTE: After typing the previous sentence, I did some googling. I found that not only does such a thing exist, but I should have KNOWN it exists, because I’m certain I’ve heard this one before:

Talkin’ bout my m-m-medication

· Leave a comment ·

I haven’t listened to my old “Who’s Greatest Hits” CD for a long time, so I decided to play it while I type up this entry. Nearly the first thing I heard was, “Hope I die before I get old.” And I’m thinkin’: “Too late…I’m already old.” This despite the fact that I’m not even 50. But Parkinson’s Disease (PD) can sure make you feel old. Which scares me, because…what will it be like if/when I still have PD AND am actually old? Hopefully by then there will be something akin to a cure. I know there are “gene therapy” treatments that have reached the human testing phase. I really want to stay up on these things, so I signed up for a Parkinson’s Foundation webinar on the topic of gene therapy. Then I checked my calendar and realized that I’m planning on being in Dinosaur National Monument that day. I’m sure they’ll record the webinar and post it on their site, so I’ll be able to go back and watch it any time. But will I actually do it? Or will I continue wasting my time playing Cities: Skylines and reading web comics?

In other news: I’m a boy, I’m a boy, but my mom won’t admit it.

In real other news: I recently enrolled in MediCare, specifically a MediCare Advantage Plan (i.e., through an insurance provider) that includes prescription drug coverage. Under this plan, three of my meds have a zero-dollar co-payment. But the stuff that’s been ensuring I sleep at night is not exactly covered. I say “not exactly” because Mirtazapine is covered, but only up to 15 mg per day, and I’ve been taking 22.5 mg each day. So, I tried scaling back to 15 mg per day. That was three or four weeks ago and I’m happy to report that I’m still sleeping well. Until the last 3 days, that is. But hopefully the last few nights of less sleep are just due to me staying up too late. Which I’ll be doing more of now that football season is beginning, and I’m still living two time zones east of my alma mater.

Random Thoughts From a Damn Weirdo

· Leave a comment ·

© 2022 by Cedric Williams

Is there a featherweight division in sumo wrestling?

Why aren't fishermen called "hookers"?

I sincerely hope there's a sports team called the Walla Walla Wall-eyed Bass.

Clams are the Muppets of the sea.

If I ever encounter a mountain lion, it'll scare me so bad I'll puma pants!

Farts are the ghosts of things we have eaten.

Speech! Speech! Speech!

· Leave a comment ·

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was getting a referral to work with a speech pathologist. Now that I’ve had a few sessions with the nice speech lady, I’d like to let y’all in on the process.

Since the problem this time is with my vocal chords and not my pronunciation, the sessions are not just practice talking, as I had assumed. Nope, it’s singing. Not even lyrics. I just open up and say ahhh, but at varying pitches. It kind of reminds me of my favorite part of the Iron Maiden song, “Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter”. Which is funny because you’d think it would remind me of the Poison album, Open Up and Say Ahhh! But clearly it doesn’t.

[This page intentionally not left blank]

So I’m supposed to practice singing these various drawn-out notes to keep my vocal chords loose, and I’m supposed to read several short sentences aloud to practice speaking from the diaphragm. Bear is used to ignoring my talking / singing around the house, so he was only mildly interested in these new vocalizations. I might try changing some of the ahhh’s and eeee’s to oooh’s, to see if I can get him howling. Oh, and by the way, the nice speech lady says I’m doing great – and I agree. I definitely sound better than I did a couple months ago.

Random Observation: You can’t spell hospitality without spit!