Tag: fatigue

New PD Travel Tip

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This post is a bit late as it involves something I learned on the last day of my road trip to Kentucky. Which was two and a half months ago.

As you all know, Parkinson’s Disease (PD) can cause a person to slowly hunch forward. For this reason, physical therapists and Rock Steady Boxing coaches continuously try to get us to constantly pay attention to our posture. But staying focused on posture is not always easy.

As I drove all over Kentucky, I occasionally noticed that my posture had completely abandoned me while I was behind the wheel. I wasn’t slouching straight forward, but forward and to the right – towards the radio. Usually, I wasn’t aware of this posture problem until it started hurting my back. So I was definitely not looking forward to the long drive back to Charlotte.

Thus, in preparation for the long drive home, I adjusted the driver’s seat so that the seat back was straight up. I hoped this would decrease the slouching a little, since there was no room for my spine to recline. This worked far better than I had imaged it would.

Y’see, with both the seat back and my own back being perpendicular to gravity, the back of my head very lightly rested against the head restraint. So lightly, that every single little bump in the road caused my head to bounce just a little. So there was a constant (and kinda fun) jostling as long as I maintained my posture. Every time my head stopped bouncin’ around, I immediately noticed the change and corrected my posture.

The results? I completed the five-hour drive home with zero back pain! And this was no fluke. I still keep the seat back as vertical as vertical can be, and the ol’ driving fatigue and back pain haven’t been happening. So, it looks like we have ourselves another PD Travel Tip!

PD Travel Tip: When travelling by car, keep your seat back as upright as possible to improve posture and to prevent fatigue and back pain.

Indirect Effects of PD

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When I started this blog (gettin’ close to two years ago), my first post was largely focused on fatigue. Then I got better. For about a year, I didn’t experience the severe fatigue that I had described in that first article. Now it has returned, but it’s a little different this time, so I decided it was worth re-visiting. Fatigue is one of the many Parkinson’s Disease (PD) symptoms that most of the general public don’t know can be associated with PD, but it is common to many PD sufferers. It’s not just a feeling of being tired, and it doesn’t matter whether you’ve been physically exerting yourself, or how much sleep you get. If you’ve got PD, you can be immobilized by fatigue at any time. And I do mean immobilized. Last night I got a full eight hours of sleep. This morning, I did nothing more strenuous than walking a dog (granted, he is a HUGE dog, but still…). After lunch I tried to take a nap, but that didn’t work because I wasn’t sleepy. And yet, I found myself feeling so physically fatigued that I couldn’t bring myself to go to the grocery store. Other times, I get frustrated with myself for wasting time surfing the web or playing computer games, yet I don’t feel like I’m mentally up to doing anything productive. And there are indirect effects. I tend to get especially tired after eating, which leads to feeling like I don’t even have it in me to brush my teeth. So I don’t. Sometimes for several days in a stretch. The same goes for showering. When I think about taking a shower, my legs often start to feel weak, and I conclude that I just don’t have the energy (or sense of balance) to stand in the shower. So I put it off. Sometimes for several days in a stretch. I feel like I need to just stop and say, “Awww, monkey bloomers!”