3rd Day in the Life... Trapped!

Early morning looking down on Church Stretton from the house past my faithful old car.

As I arrived here at mid-day on Tuesday, I'm now on my third day and by midnight will be half-way through my week's stint. That's how one's mind works in this job; that and counting up how much I can put in the Bank to pay off the Credit cards! 

About twice a day, Jane has a panic attack. Apparently this is part of the Parkinson's package to let sufferers know how bad they are and today has been particularly bad. She has a special pill for this, which takes a while to work and in the meantime I help her get relaxed and as comfortable as possible, which isn't easy. Being of the older generation, Jane has never got into alternative ways of living, such as practising relaxation or meditation. So every time she feels panicky, her first impulse is to phone her long-suffering daughter-in-law or one of her sons for support, ignoring the fact that they've got her a carer for this very purpose. 

Not an easy situation, especially if she's having an attack as I'm cooking lunch, which is what happened today. This time the attack lasted longer than usual, preventing her from eating and even after she'd fallen asleep with fatigue, she didn't awake feeling much better. Actually, she's slept a lot today, probably because she didn't sleep much in the night, so her sleep pattern seems to be getting reversed.

A particular difficulty I find is that her voice becomes almost inaudible when she's having an attack, so I'm continually having to guess what she wants as its so awkward saying, 'What's that? Sorry Jane, I can't hear what you're saying... is that what you want?' which is not helped by the fact that I'm a bit deaf anyway.

Because it's a bad day, there's no chance for me to go out at all, though I can usually go shopping down in the town when she's alright for a short while. So I'm trapped here because she's trapped in this awful disease. What a life! 

However, I'm making the most of this enforced imprisonment by writing this blog as well as other articles I hope to get published in magazines as well as in our WHO2 Newsletter. So I'm not really wishing my life away, but when I wake tomorrow it will only be 3 days till I finish!