People ask me how I stay strong in the face of Parkinsosn.
The answer that has only come to me recently (seems I am a slow study) is that i try to counter the 'smallness' and quiet insidious creep of the disease with BIG Movements, BIG Voice and BIG Ideas.
I wasrecently asked on a PwP (people with Parkinsons) blog about my opinion of a programme callled LSVT BIG. I am such an advocate of LSVT BIG that i believe that very FIRST thing EVERY Neuorologist should recommend, to anyone they are diagnosing with PD, is this physical therapy.
This is the ONE thing that we can do every day to stretch ourselves, enhance our well being and maximise our strength and flexibility. LSVT BIG works because it is designed specifically for PWP, and because the basic principle of BIG counters the "smallness" of Parky.
Many of you are familiar with my poem 'Smaller' (click on the link to the right if you haven't seen it. Here is my follow-up poem. A challenge to myself to be 'Bigger' and a request for company on the journey.
Bigger (sequel to "Smaller")
Remember being small?
Your world
Uncertain
Innocent
Adventurous
Beset by rules –and daytime sleeps
Your body learning
Stumbling over words, fingers and knots,
Lips for whistling, hands to stand on
Legs to balance, arms to fly.
My world got smaller again
Things I could do – gone
Others still possible –at a snails pace
Hard-fought independence eroding
Words and knots haunting me
Flying and balance askew.
Daytime sleeps back in the mix
And yet the opportunity to rise
To be bigger
Than I ever was
Is the clearest it has ever been
I am going to be bigger than I ever was
When I was big before.
I have to
Will you walk with me?
