Whats on this month?
Its been an especially interesting month.
Return of my cheer leader.
After after a month of business trip and holiday in Greece and Italy my number one cheerleader has finally returned. It's great to have her back in Australia. There has also been a few other friends return from distant shores, all beat the European heat wave and avoided the bush fires over there thankfully.
Not such great news from some of my friends.
A series of updates from close and dear friends this month makes me appreciate my own current realtively good health and also not take it for granted.
My cousin aged 59, continues to fight a hard battle with cancer, and is valiantly trying to keep positive. We chat about where he is at and some updates are not great to hear. The latest is the recent loss of his teeth making eating a challenge. His family are struggling to come to terms with his decline and are not coping very well at all. This means he is not getting the emotional support that he really deserves and needs at this time. Not everyone can cope with this reality and have to deal with it in their own way. I hope that I get to see him again in person before its too late to do so, but in the mean time I need to make more regular calls. He and I were defintiely partners in crime growing up, he is like an extra brother. It makes me tear up thinking that he doesnt have a lot of time left.
My sort of brother in law ( actually my not sister in laws man) has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and is about to start getting that sorted out. He has a good support network of family ralllying around and fingers crossed they sort him out and get on top of it quickly.
And a very dear colleague in NZ who I have know for many many years has been diagnosed with a double whammy of breast cancer and colorectal cancer. She is such a selfless individual and as a mother of 5 kids, the youngest twins just turning 16, she definitely doe not deserve this complication to her life. I found out about her diagnosis on the day my bowel cancer screening test kit arrived in the mail, so it was a pertinent reminder that these important test kits need to be done and not ignored, early dectection is vital to having a chance at beating this awful disease cancer.
To all of these friends and anyone else going through a challenge with cancer - kia kaha.
Becoming an Aussie.
As mentioned in the previous post the Australian government has changed the rules of eligibility so I no longer have to go through permanent residency process first before applying for citizenship. This change took place on 1 July so I readied myself to get my application as soon as it was possible. That was on the Saturday, 1 July at about 330 in the afternoon when the website was made available after maintenance changes. There was a lot to cover and fortunately because I had started the process already some of my data was already uploaded. There was 40 screens worth of information required including all the travel out of Australia in the last 10 years, passport photos, proof of identity, proof of arrival, proof of residential address and so on. The final step was uploading a signed photo by someone not related to me who knew me for five years and was of one of a specified list of professional bodies. Fortunately one of our close friends was in the eligible category and I was able to get the passport photos signed and authorised by her on the Sunday. Once I have submitted my application in full I saw a link saying processing times so I out of interest thought I would just check to see what the typical processing time is likely to be. There were at the end of May 90,000 applications for citizenship by conferral within estimated processing time of up to 11 months! So it's a case of hurry up and wait. At least I'm in the queue.
Update :
Much to my surprise I have received an advice that I have a interview on the 10 August!! I better brush up on the Aussie knowledge documentation that they will ask me about. Fingers crossed I dont get stage fright.
PD and Dementia Research.
PD CogniCare has begun. I have come to understand the the wheels move slowly in Uni research. So "Watch this space" becomes Watch this space periodically.
More help with Parkinson's awareness and advocacy.
YOPD catch up this month was an interesting one. For the first time we had a participant who was not exactly positive and commented a couple of times and appropriately.
This was the first time that I had really had to moderate the discussion of the young onset Parkinson's group. This particular individual was self diagnosed and self-medicating even though he had been told by more than one professional neurologist that he didn't have Parkinson's and instead had another condition FND. He was quite disrespectful of the professional opinions that he was given on more than one occasion so we will be addressing this at the beginning of the next meeting to hopefully get the general group discussion back on track and positive rather than negative.
Walking.
On going through rain, and shine. Still haven't missed a day. #committed.
Medication/ Health.
Changes to my medication regime seemed to be fine so I will continue taking the bulk of my medication in the morning. It certainly is very convenient to get that out of the way before breakfast and the trip to the city.
The B1 seems to be having a positive impact although it is hard to measure exactly. I am definitely feeling less fatigued at the end of the day and did notice some improvement in my speech volume and sense of smell although this is very hard to gauge. I was able to catch a sense of aroma from a rose at a distance rather than really up close which was a little bit of a surprise at the time. Maybe I was just imagining it but will monitor and see how it goes over the long-term but definitely feel less fatigued at the end of the day.
I happened to go to a Parkinson's Disease seminar locally which included a presentation by a speech pathologist. Some of the symptoms described were definitely things that I have noticed in my own speech and voice and as I listened to the presentation I decided it would be worth following up. I booked an initial session for an assessment and had that this week. As expected, actual db measurements proved my volume was more at the poor end of the scale so we immediately started on lessons so that I can work on this over time. It definitley feels like I am having to shout compared to my regular speech but I will just have to get on with it and practice. At least I can do that at the office first thing when no one is around to hear me. I downloaded an app on the phone to measure decibels while i practice. My usual range at assessment was 45-65 when it needs to be in the high 70s and above. At least i have a benchmark now. The side issues resulting from Parkinson's affecting speech is that there are correpponding potential issues with swallowing and choking can be a risk down the track, which is why I need to get on top of this. As well as giving me more chance to be heard in general conversation and more "distance" or length of speech in training and meeting situations. I have taken a couple of short videos so that I can compare over time how this is progressing.
Pilates.
Pilates is still on Wednesday evenings with a friendly bunch of regulars. We have some interesting conversations about a wide range of topics which makes it fun while doing the various activities.
PFU Boxing and more.
Each week there is something new for the warmup. Good to see some of the old regulars reappearing too. Might talk to the group about gettting some video for the website to help demonstrate to potential new memeber to the group what they can expect.
Social Outings.
Lots on the calendar, regular "Thirst-day" drinks with the lads are always good. We have settled on a new regular spot - we found that the Fourth Monkey has a nice fire pit out the back, and they do a good waffle fries to share while we chat over a beer.
Work.
Head down and focus on delivery with more work coming on stream from sometimes unexpected places. Still trying to catch up and complete some existing projects. Many new projects in the pipeline and continuing to clean up existing projects.
Land Sailing.
The track update is not great news - now the home track will be based at Woodgate near Bundaberg.
Otherwise for me its still so far so good.
Same Same.
And that is all for just now - keep a lookout for the next post and thanks for tagging along!