Day 6: This was to be a long day on the road. I had read in at least two places that state highway 22 is an excellent scenic route along the shore of Lake Michigan. So, I had plotted a route to the “starting” point … Continue reading Michigan 2024 Trip Report (Days 6 through 8)
Day 3: When you last heard from me, I said that I would be visiting a “most unique / unusual” museum. As it turns out, I was a little off base. Despite its name, Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum is more of an arcade than a … Continue reading Michigan 2024 Trip Report (Days 3 through 5)
Before I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease (PD), I only knew one thing about it: that it causes tremors. I had never dreamed of the cornucopia of symptoms that I now get to experience on a daily basis. Case in point: Dry Eyes. From time … Continue reading Dry Eyes
Before I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease (PD), I only knew one thing about it: that it causes tremors. I had never imagined the rich tapestry of symptoms that I now get to deal with from day to day. I imagine at least a few … Continue reading Sense of Smell
It seems like every time I read a news article about Parkinson’s Disease (PD), somewhere in the article they mention there’s no cure for PD. If you ask any neurologist, they’ll say the same. There are treatments that may slow the progression of PD but nothing that will fully halt, much less reverse, the worsening of the disease. But I’m starting to wonder…
A friend recently informed me that a PD sufferer at his church had been taking a product called Restore Gold (TM) and reported that his tremors had stopped about two months after he started taking it. I have not yet researched this product, but a quick web search found some people claiming it had worked well against their PD, and others claiming it was a flat-out scam.
A couple weeks later, another friend sent me this link. This video asserts nicotine (yes, THAT nicotine) is in reality neither addictive nor harmful, and that it is an excellent fighter against PD and many other maladies. To be clear, the video is NOT pro-tobacco. Indeed, it blames the tobacco industry for falsely claiming nicotine is addictive, while they were secretly adding the truly addictive chemicals that are found in cigarettes. Ultimately, the video attempts to steer the user towards the nicotine patch (specifically the Rugby(R) brand of nicotine patch) as a way to reverse PD. I have not yet fully researched the use of nicotine in the fight against PD, but a quick web search found what appear to be several legitimate studies supporting this claim, including this study funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
I am tempted to add both Restore Gold and nicotine patches to my daily medication / supplement regimen. However, adding multiple approaches at once would make it difficult to know which one is doing what, assuming I actually do see some changes. And I am already seeing some changes. Changes that I can only attribute to ‘shrooms. And I don’t mean “Magic Mushrooms”, though there are studies underway trying to determine whether psilocybin has any effect on PD.
No, my friends, I’m typing about “lion’s mane” mushrooms. As you may and/or mayn’t recall, this friendly fungus was featured five months ago. For a few months, I seemed to be getting some positive results, but it was kinda hard to tell. Over the last month, I have definitely seen improvements in the following:
Better Sleep:
Prior to starting the lion’s mane regimen, I would often wake up multiple times during the night. Sometimes I could get back to sleep, sometimes not. In any case, I almost always got out of bed between 4:00 and 7:00. Over the last month, I have been experiencing solid sleep. Once in a while, my dog will wake me up, or I’ll get up to urinate, but I almost always get back to sleep quickly. And I’m sleeping until somewhere between 7:00 and 9:00 (some days, even later).
Awakening Alive:
Before the shrooms, whenever I got up in the morning, I would take my first dose of Levodopa (Levo) then just crash on the couch for half an hour (which is about how long it takes for the Levo to kick in). Until the Levo took effect, I felt incapable of doing ANYthing. Over the last month, I have usually felt capable of doing things the instant I get out of bed. On a couple of occasions, I even forgot to take my first dose of Levo!
Off Periods Improved:
I take Levo every 3 hours (except overnight). Prior to shroomin’ it up, I could always feel when time was approaching for the next dose. About 2.5 hours after taking a dose of Levo, I would start having anxiety, or sometimes depression. Over the last month, I have hardly experienced anxiety or depression at all. I’ve even been seriously late (up to nearly two hours late) taking a dose, and STILL didn’t have any anxiety / depression (though I did feel the ol’ physical fatigue on those occasions).
Reduced Medication:
Now, I would expect improvements such as those described above if I had added a new medication or increased the dosage of one I’m already on. But there have been no such additions / increases. In fact, a little more than a month ago, I actually decreased one of my meds. I get Pramipexole (Prami) in tiny 0.125 mg pills. I had been taking eleven of these each day for the last few years, but reduced it to nine each day. With the encouragement of my medical provider, I reduced it even further last week, to eight each day. So far, that’s working well.
One final note:
The news articles that led me to start taking lion’s mane supplement concluded that 1,000 to 1,500 mg per day was the appropriate dosage. But the brand of supplement I settled on comes in 7,500 mg capsules – and they recommend taking two of these each day. So far, I have only taken one of these each day because for crap’s sake, that’s already 5 times the amount recommended by studies. But I am ever pondering as to whether I should try bumping at up to two-a-days. If I do, I’ll let you know in a new post.
I recently bought a huge white minivan, an “upgrade” from my usual 4-door sedan. There were two main reasons for this. One was that Parkinson’s was sometimes making it difficult to get in and out of my last sedan. The other was that I never … Continue reading Prequel to Traveling with a Great Pyrenees
If you are seeing this message, I am dead. Or maybe just lazy. Whichever you would consider to be an appropriate excuse for going nearly a week without posting when there is active travel to tell you about. Day 9: At the end of my … Continue reading Nevada 2024 Trip Report (Days 9 and 10)
Another night of very little sleep. This was largely due to a lack of soundproofing in the Strat Hotel tower, mixed with the fact that people are comin’ and goin’ at all hours in Las Vegas. So, I tried to get a few winks in … Continue reading Nevada 2024 Trip Report (Day 2)
Today was a long day. First, I couldn’t sleep last night; this appears to be happening every time I travel now. At a little after 5:00 AM, I left home and headed to the Charlotte airport. Here, I found the line just to drop off a checked bag for an American Airlines flight was nearly as long as the TSA line. And both were HUGE! It was cold this morning in Charlotte, and there are some cold days in the forecast for this trip, so I was wearing my winter coat. In this mass of humanity. By the time I had to take off my coat at the security checkpoint, I almost couldn’t get the thing off, as I had been sweating so much that the inside of the coat sleeves were soaked to the point of sticking to my arms! Ultimately, I was reminded yet again that I need to get TSA Pre-Check.
Then there was The Flight. I was flying to Las Vegas, Nevada, but had a stop in Los Angeles, California. From Charlotte to L.A. is a 5.5-hour flight, and for a flight that long, I did NOT want to be stuck in “Basic Economy” (read “no leg- or even foot-room”). So, I threw down an extra ninety bucks for an exit row seat. I also took a dose of Lorazepam, hoping this would keep any anxiety at bay AND cause me to sleep through the flight. I did sleep off and on, and the leg room was marvelous!
It took a LONG walk to switch planes in L.A. I have to say, there are large portions of LAX that look more like a high school basement than a major city’s international airport. But never mind that. I made it to the second flight, and on into Las Vegas with no trouble. Since my flight was an early one and I was flying west across three time zones, it wasn’t much past lunch time when I got my rental car. So, I headed to Naked City Pizza, which was recommended on the “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” web site, which specifically endorsed (among other things) the “Steak and Cheese Fries”. So that’s what I ordered. I was a little disappointed. They were good, but not the taste explosion I was hoping I would get.
After lunch, it was still a little too early to check into my hotel room at The Strat (formerly The Stratosphere). So, I hit up the “Pinball Hall of Fame” (PHOF). Please note that this place is not so much a “Hall of Fame” as it is a HUGE arcade with an amazing selection of pinball machines of all ages. There are a fair number of arcade video games as well, and a couple other coin-operated machines of yesteryear. For my purposes, I’ll divide the pinball machines into three categories, like so:
Much to my dismay, my arms started cramping after a couple of hours here, so I checked into the hotel and just rested until bed time. I am hoping to go back to PHOF before I leave Las Vegas. If I do, I’ll try to get some pics while I’m there.
Stay tuned, this is planned to be a long and varied trip, so there’s MUCH more to come!
(Continued from here.) Day 7: Let’s all get drunk and go to Cher’s house! WOOOOO! Whoa. Sorry. I don’t know where the Hell that came from. Let’s get on with the trip report, shall we? I spent the last few days of my Mississippi State Vacation gradually crossing from … Continue reading Mississippi 2024 Trip Report (final few days)
Voyages with Parkinson's 