I woke in the early hours (3am-ish?) with terrible cramp in my right foot. As soon as I’m awake, the foot is also clenched tight with dystonia. I move my leg and foot around trying to alleviate the pain. Just as I’m about to reach for my remote control and switch my neurostimulator on, the cramping subsides. I concentrate on relaxing the muscles in my foot and manage to drop off to sleep again. Awake again at just before 7am, I snooze until 8am and then get up, dress and go downstairs to feed the dog and put the kettle on.
I’m keen to maintain the momentum and follow up on yesterday’s successes, so I’m preparing another list of tasks that I think I can achieve.
- Research button blanks for my wife. She has just bought her own button press for covering buttons with fabric, but doesn’t have any of the blanks required.
- Sharpen the Dutch hoe. I need to get the bench grinder out from under the double bed in the spare bedroom. I managed to locate it yesterday, but didn’t manage to get it out – there’s rather a lot of other stuff in the way!
- Do a little weeding down at the allotment, provided the weather holds out.
- Continue to search for the camera cable or the card reader so that I can transfer photos from my digital camera to my laptop.
I take the dog for her morning walk, and visit the allotment to see what needs to be done. Weeds are choking what little we have managed to plant this year, and it looks like a mammoth task – so I resolve to weed between the rows of potatoes, and just see how it goes. I see that some of the strawberry plants have borne fruit that the birds and slugs haven’t eaten just yet, so I’ll bring a container down with me and pick them to have this evening with some cream or yoghurt.
I return home, let the dog into the house, and on an impulse get down on my hands and knees in our front “garden” (a small area of shingle through which grow a few wild poppies and a lot of weeds) and spend a few minutes removing the worst of the weeds.
As I finish up, it starts to rain, so maybe that’s the end of my gardening for today… I make myself a gourmet lunch (peanut butter on toast), load the dishwasher and switch it on, and then sit down with my iPad to search for button blanks.
I get bored with the search very quickly and, since it has now stopped raining, decide to get the bench grinder out and sharpen the hoe. Job done! Bench grinder returned to its place under the bed, and I decide to go and do some weeding at the allotment.
I intend to weed for an hour, but time passes in a blur and before I know it I’ve been there for over an hour and three quarters. I think I might have overdone it – had a lot of trouble getting to my feet!
The dog wants her walk when I get back, and I take pity on her even though I’m feeling near to collapse. A 15 minute walk turns into 45 minutes because we bump into people (other dogwalkers) that we haven’t seen for some time. When we get back home I feed the dog and run a nice hot bath. My wife prepares us a meal, and then we slump in front of the telly for the rest of the evening.
Symptoms! Dyskinesia – not too troublesome today. Dystonia – there, but bearable. Tremor – fairly good today. Motivation – none, but working on it! Balance – fair to middling. Voice – stronger than it has been for the last few days. Energy – this morning, not too bad; this evening, none whatsoever.
Achievements! 2 out of 4 (but I did weed the front garden, and that wasn’t on my list).