Day 6: Leaving Las Vegas Now I’ll have to watch that movie again when I get home. But yes, on this day I am leaving the big city for the smaller towns and more remote desert parks and such. I am beginning with Valley o’ … Continue reading Nevada 2024 Trip Report (Day 6)
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!
Recently, a friend pointed me to the news article linked here.
This news, while exciting, is also extremely scientific (i.e., hard to read). So, I offer you my summary of what it all means.
First of all, the article is about research done by the University of Wisconsin. Yet it has nothing to do with cheese, Leinenkugel’s, or the Green Bay Packers. I guess Wisconsin does science, too.
The big news is that researchers have found a way to use 3-D printers to print WORKING brain structures. If my understanding is correct (and I do have some questions), it works like this:
Now you may be saying to yourself, “But Cedric, what does this all mean for Parkinson’s sufferers?” And if you are talking to yourself…and calling yourself Cedric…then you may be in serious need of psychological help. Believe me! I call myself Cedric, and I am in serious need of psychological help.
The reality is this: scientists have long known that neurons physically connect to one another and communicate through electrical and chemical signals. What they haven’t necessarily understood is exactly how these communications work. Part of the reason for this is the sheer complexity of the brain. The human brain contains about 86 billion neurons, and a typical neuron connects to 1,000 other neurons. This 3-D printing breakthrough enables scientists to create mini-brains with much more manageable numbers of neurons. This of course will make it easier to isolate and study specific aspects of brain functionality, ultimately leading to better understanding of how the brain works. And since Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a brain-based disease, this better understanding of brain functions could lead to better and/or more permanent treatments for PD. And it doesn’t end with just learning. During the development of new drugs, these “printed brains” could serve as test subjects to determine whether the drug actually works, before moving on to testing it on animals or humans.
My ultimate hope, though the article doesn’t directly say anything about this, is some day they MIGHT be able to cure PD by removing brain cells that have died (the death of cells in a very specific part of the brain leads to PD), then “printing” and implanting replacements for the dead brain cells. Or maybe, just maybe, some day we’ll be able to round up all the truly stupid people in the world and print them each a new brain.
I am, as most of you know, taking multiple medications AND multiple dietary supplements in my fight against Parkinson’s Disease (PD). This of course means that I am handling a variety of pill bottles, featuring a variety of anti-tamper / safety seals. But I’ve discovered an industry secret: These seals are not actually designed to protect you. They are designed to make you drop the pill bottle at the exact moment the seal pops off, so that they spill all over the place, causing you to lose half of them so that you have to buy more. But not all of them are like that. Some bottles don’t spill because a cotton ball has been stuffed in on top of the pills. This cotton ball cannot be removed by anyone with PD tremors or really anyone with full-grown fingers. I believe the drug / supplement companies are trying to get children interested in pills at an early age. Think about it: a cap that is supposedly child-proof (what kid isn’t going to see that as a challenge?) followed by a cotton ball that requires child-size fingers to remove.
For the longest time, I handled the “safety seals” by stabbing them with either a steak knife or a car key – whichever was handy. As for the cotton balls, I would always fumble around trying to pin a substantial amount of the cotton between one finger and the inner wall of the bottle, then keep it pinned as I tried to slide it up to where I could get a second finger involved. With some bottles, this could take months.
It wasn’t until surprisingly recently that it occurred to me I should employ some kind of tool to remove the cotton ball. My first thought was needle-nose pliers. But I know where those have been. So…no. Don’t ask, just know it’s no. So, I thought to myself, “What’s a smaller (and hopefully more sanitary) version of needle-nose pliers?” The answer: tweezers! I retrieved the one pair of tweezers that I own, and set to work on a newly opened bottle of pramipexole. To my great delight, they removed the cotton ball with ease. On top of that, they turned out to be the ideal seal-stabber. Since I could be just about anywhere when the need to open a new medication or supplement bottle arises, I added tweezers to my packing list. And thus we have the latest PD Travel Tip.
PD Travel Tip: Pack tweezers.
(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)
Day 5: The plan for Vicksburg was to spend as long as it takes to see everything at the Vicksburg National Military Park, as much as two full days. If it didn’t take a full two days, then I would use my remaining time to visit … Continue reading Mississippi 2024 Trip Report (Days 5 and 6)
Day 3: Unlike the night before, I remembered to take my bedtime pills last night. So, I haven’t had any Parkinson’s-caused walking trouble today. However, because of the damage I did yesterday, I woke up today with an aching hip. Luckily, one of my morning meds is meloxicam, … Continue reading Mississippi 2024 Trip Report (Days 3 and 4)
One of the main problems for the traveling Parkinson’s patient is keeping track of the large number of medications and dietary supplements some of us are on. At home, I have divided my meds into two groups: daytime and bedtime. Daytime meds are lined up along a … Continue reading Mississippi 2024 Trip Report (Day 2)
Well over a decade ago, I read somewhere that air fares tend to be least expensive from 18 to 28 days prior to the flight. This has proved true time and time again over the years. Many times, I have looked at flight prices over a month in advance, and been tempted by a good price. And many times, I have waited until that 18 – 28 day window, and been rewarded with an even better price.
But not so this time. A week from tomorrow, I will be leaving for Mississippi. This trip will conclude with a one-way flight from Birmingham, Alabama back home to Charlotte. When I was initially plotting this trip a couple of months ago, I was tempted to buy this ticket the first time I looked, as it was only $133 at the time. But, as always, I waited, hoping an even better price would emerge. This time it didn’t; I ended up paying $204 for this flight. This isn’t as bad as it sounds, as the flight I ended up booking is with Southwest airlines, which does not charge to check a bag. The $133 flight would have been with either American or United, and I would’ve had to pay at least an additional $30 to check a bag.
About a month ago, I told you about a dietary supplement that I had added to my routine: lion’s mane mushroom extract. Since that report, my off periods have been less frequent and more tolerable than before. Of course, Parkinson’s symptoms come and go as they please, and there are other potential factors involved. Time will tell whether this fungus is really helping, but right now it seems to be doing some good.
Voyages with Parkinson's 