Finally ready to pray

I'm finally ready to be prayed over at church - we're scheduled for 10:30am this Sunday. This will be a perfect time as our pastor and his wife will be speaking about Broken Dreams. They are a wonderful couple and I can't wait to hear what God, through them, has to say to me.

Learn how to cope with the major disappointments that slip into our lives!

Here's the info on this weekend's services at HPAC;

BROKEN DREAMS

November 21-22

On the weekend of November 21-22 our lead pastor, Garth Leno, and his wife Patty will be sharing their journey as parents of a daughter with severe disabilities.  Jamie was diagnosed nearly 20 years ago with a rare disorder which has affected her in profound ways.  So we’d like to invite friends, family, and neighbours to join us for an intimate journey of the soul.  While the Leno’s “broken dream” relates directly to their daughter who is handicapped by Rett Syndrome, we recognize that many people in our world today are living with broken dreams of different kinds.  We believe that our weekend services on November 21-22 will be a great source of encouragement and hope for anyone who is struggling to understand why God allows stuff like this to happen.

Many people who might be interested in this message of hope are already involved in a faith community on Sunday morning.  So we’d like to invite them to come for the service on Saturday evening, November 21, at 6:00 PM. 

Many of us know families or individuals who are struggling with learning disabilities, cancer, autism, divorce, cerebral palsy, or the premature death of a loved one.   Most of us know people who are living with a broken dream of some kind.  We believe this particular weekend ministry will be a source of great hope and encouragement to them, and everyone is welcome. 

So please invite friends and family to join you at HPAC on Saturday November 21 at 6:00pm or Sunday November 22 at 9 or 11am.

Exercise, exercise, exercise

I went back to work on a 6 month contract, AND I'm trying to complete some programming projects that I picked up while I was laid off - so I've gone from a lazy summer to a crazy-busy fall.

My frequency of exercise had gotten so bad (infrequent) that I even started to notice symptoms getting significantly worse. There were times at work when my hand would shake so much I would need to put it back down on my lap and concentrate on relaxing before 'trying again' to type.

I knew I needed to get back on the bike. I've been more consistent in the last few days than I have for the previous month, and I can definitely feel the difference.

A great friend at church has offered to help me commit to getting up in the morning on time to exercise. It's such a blessing to have good people 'in my corner'.

I've been asked - do you bike indoors or outdoors? It's indoors - this is my bike;

With my balance, it's best to be low to the ground. It's also a big timesaver as I don't have to get dressed or even put shoes on to get started - and I don't need a helmet  :-)

Here's my biking chart from runningahead.com. Notice the big gaps. I'm targeting consistency as well as pace for the next while.

Typos

I'm goig to try typing without correcting and see what comes up. I'm finding I spend alot of my time lately sjust fixing my mistakes or typos. Hmm, of course it's not happening now that I'm determined to have you see the "rwaw" datea. Maybe another time I can put on a real show with all the double hits and taranaspostions etc. I just wanted to put "down on paper" the reason for someof my frustratioiin. Right now, it's actuaally not so bad thoough. Strange,eh?

Corrected below;

I'm going to try typing without correcting and see what comes up. I'm finding I spend a lot of my time lately just fixing my mistakes or typos. Hmm, of course it's not happening now that I'm determined to have you see the "raw" data. Maybe another time I can put on a real show with all the double hits and transpositions etc. I just wanted to put "down on paper" the reason for some of my frustration. Right now, it's actually not so bad though. Strange,eh?

Exercise gaps

It seems even unemployed people get busier in the fall. I biked today, but the last time was a full week ago. In some ways it feels like starting over, but I did have some good 'sprints' and ended up with a respectable pace.
Tomorrow I have an interview in Waterloo, and Friday a meeting in Troy so those two days I won't be biking either  :-(

CoQ10 Screening

Today was my "screening" visit for a CoEnzymeQ10 study I hope to be participating in. Basically it involved handing over some blood and urine (mine), and answering some questions. Some of the cognitive questions are really indicative of where PD has the potential to take someone (along the dimentia route). Questions like; what city are we in? what day is it? (actually, that was a tough one - I never know what day it is). My brain was working pretty well today so I got 31 correct answers (out of 31 questions - woohoo!).
If there's anything drastically wrong with my blood or urine, I could still be excluded from the study - but then would be working on fixing some other health problem :-)
To stay in the study, I can't start any symptom relief medication (the study lasts for 16 months) - so I'll have to get more comfortable with this shaking, and get my exercise level up to higher levels so that "runners high" can kick in more often. Dropping out of the study would be a big waste, as I would still be included as one of the 600 study participants but my results wouldn't be used.

Posted this in the PLM (patientslikeme.com) forum today

The end of this story is the most important part, if you want to skip ahead.

I've been sedentary for a very long time, and just started biking in the middle of May on a recumbent exercise bike. I knew I was going to be home full time (permanent layoff) starting in June, so I started increasing my biking distance. I eased up very gradually - it took me 3 weeks to go over 1.5 miles in a session. Even up until last week I hadn't done more than 5 miles in a session. I was getting frustrated, I knew I was getting stronger and more stamina, but I wanted to be able to pick up my pace.

I was intrigued when I read about the results from tandem bike riding, and I really wanted to be able to do a good run at a higher pedalling rate.

At the same time, I wanted to start running instead of walking - but I hadn't run in years (not even a few steps). I read about the Couch to 5k (c25k) program and thought I'd try that. The first day convinced me that running was not going to be my thing (it HURT!), so I switched the running portions to brisk walks.

I still wasn't able to speed up my biking pace though, in fact - I was slowing down. I needed a new approach. I took the c25k program and applied it to my biking. I turned down the resistance on the bike so I could keep up a higher speed - and when the music was done - I had gone 6.5 miles (at a respectable average pace)! I felt like this combination was going to work for me.

But here's the best part – this morning when I woke up my arm felt significantly less stiff, and it didn't have any tremor. I'm not on any meds yet, but it felt to me like I'd gotten a shot of dopamine. Now I'm so motivated – I did 7 miles on the bike this morning, and my pace was better than yesterday!

c25k on the bike

Slight exercise modification; pushups have gone to 16 reps, and I've eliminated the reverse leg lifts. I think my back feels better for it.
I decided to try to pick up the pace on the exerciise bike, so I listened to the c25k audio and used the running portions to speed up. I turned down the resistance, as I've read that PD patients get a good effect from higher rpm's. I ended up going 6.5 miles (a new record) at a pace of 3 minutes per km.