All patched up

MARIE: It can be hard to see things clearly if you’re too close to them (I guess that’s why it’s always easier to solve other people’s problems), so although Jon and I both think his new Exelon patches are doing him good, we weren’t really certain how much good.

So it’s been really good to hear from several people who don’t see Jon every day that they have noticed a clear improvement in him. The physiotherapist told me Jon seems keener and is definitely quicker round the torture chamber of exercise machines, our neighbour said he’s been more cheerful lately (after a demonstration of Jon’s ballet moves), and my family who invaded us for several days over Christmas felt he is more engaged and with it.

To cap it all, he had a truly splendid New Year’s eve party. Okay, he was very slow of foot when we arrived and did have a muddled half hour early on when he told several jokes with the punch line first, but from that point on he was on an upward trajectory. A daybed had very thoughtfully been provided by our hosts – it generally really helps when Jon can have a half hour’s time-out now and again, and he’d made liberal use of similar arrangements during Christmas, but for New Year’s eve the bed remained untouched. In fact, by the time everyone else was getting ready to go home some considerable time after midnight, Jon was in his stride and could easily have stayed on.

Of course this miracle of stamina was fuelled by regular applications of drugs. Jon now takes L-dopa every two hours from 6 in the morning until 10 at night, and he just carried on with this schedule for many extra hours. That, probably in combination with the alcohol and the fags he bummed from other guests, kept him in high spirits.

The price, predictably, was that he was still flying high when we got home and didn’t get much sleep that night. In the first 24 hours of 2012, I don’t believe he managed more than 3 hours’ sleep in total – and nor did I. He got up at 6:15, turned on all the lights and let the cat out, then went back to bed. So I got up at 6:30, turned off all the lights and let the cat in, then went back to bed. So he got up and made a loud cup of tea. So I got up and had a wee. Then we both went back to bed – and 5 minutes later the first pill alarm of the day went off. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses, so we stayed up after that.

In the subsequent 24 hours Jon’s sleep ratio was reversed, and today he seems about back to normal. It didn’t use to take that long to recover from a night out when we were young and PD-free, but never mind, it’s a price well worth paying.