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This is David Boots' most recent PD story. Knowing how much so many of you
enjoy his writing (as do I), I am forwarding it to the list with David's
permission.

Dennis.



> Scenes From A Mall

by David Boots
>
> "Do you mind if we stop at the mall on the way home?...I need to pick up
> some photos" she asked tentatively. He was too "off" to reply and instead
> gave her a thumbs-up gesture as she changed lanes to take the next exit.
> "You're awful quiet this morning, about time for your meds?" to which he
> repeated his thumbs-up gesture. "I'll get you a cold soft-drink to take
> them with" she replied knowing that he often tried to swallow them without
> the benefit of liquids.
>
> As she pulled the van into a handicapped spot near the entrance, he
pointed
> at his watch and tried to raise his eyebrows. She said "Ten minutes at the
> most" which got her another thumbs-up from him. "I'll leave the keys here
> if you want to listen to the radio" she said as she got out of the van,
> locking the door behind her.
>
> He didn't really care one way or the other as long as he could get home
and
> lie down soon. PD had changed him from a young to an old man over the last
> several years as the disease progressed and his abilities had been taken
> from him one-by-one. His neurologist had spoken with him earlier that
> morning asking him if he would consider surgery in the near future to help
> relieve him of some of the horrors of his life. He felt his neuro was
close
> to understanding what he was going through but knew that only someone with
> PD can really know the score. He tried to convey what it was like to his
> wife but he could tell she didn't understand.
>
> She truly hoped they had done the right thing by selling their farm and
> moving closer to his doctor and the hospital. It seemed like he was
totally
> dependent on her lately and she hadn't planned on assuming that role till
> much later in his life when aging naturally begins to wear the body down.
> She tried to sound positive when they talked about his condition but the
> neurologist had told her that hope for a cure was still years away and
that
> she would have to "be strong".
>
> The chest pains hit her as soon as she had entered the mall and she had to
> grab a passerby as she stumbled forward. The man helped her to a nearby
> bench and yelled for someone to call an ambulance as she felt the pain
> intensifying and her right arm went numb. "My God" she thought "this is
> really happening" as the pain continued to spread and the darkness closed
> around her. The last thing she heard was her good Samaritan screaming
> something about CPR as the crowd gathered.
>
> Time seemed to be dragging as he sat in the van awaiting her return. He
had
> let too much time pass and his body was pleading with him to take his
> medicine soon. He felt like someone flipped a switch in his body to the
> "OFF" position reducing him to a zombie-like state awash in waves of
> negative thinking, trembling and wobbling in the front seat of the van. He
> heard the sound of an ambulance and turned as best he could in his seat to
> see where it was headed. Maybe she saw it and will tell him about it on
> their way home. First things first, he thought as he reached over to where
> she had laid his meds on the edge of the driver seat.
>
> As he leaned over, he pitched forward knocking the bottle to the
floorboard
> on the driver's side and pinning his left arm beneath his uncooperative
> body and his right arm barely a foot away from the medicine lying there.
> Silently cursing, he tried to raise himself as he realized he didn't have
> the strength. As he lay face down across the front seat, he tried to
reason
> through this predicament. The horn was less than a foot above him but it
> may as well have been a mile with one arm trapped beneath him and the
other
> unable to perform the required contortion.
>
> Too weak to lift himself and too weak to yell for help in the crowded mall
> parking lot, he started to panic. She'd be back in a few minutes and they
> would laugh about this later that night, he told himself. Yet it seemed
> like more than ten minutes had passed since they parked. he fought to
> control that part of his mind that had gotten him out of similar
situations
> in the past. He even chuckled to himself trying to imagine what somebody
> watching this scenario unfold might have going through their mind. He
> needed to do something soon because his left arm was losing feeling and
the
> effort he'd exerted in trying to raise himself off the seat had used up
> almost all of his reserves.
>
> If he could grab hold of the steering wheel, maybe he could pull himself
> up. He pictured this in his mind as he raised his right arm off the
> floorboard causing him to slide farther beneath the steering wheel. Now
his
> face was a mere inch or so from  his medicine bottle and his right arm was
> twisted behind him. His left arm almost freed itself but remained wedged
> underneath his immovable weight. Not even thinking of laughter as an
> option, he began to cry. He cried because the easiest of tasks turn
> themselves into massive efforts (often futile like this one seemed to be).
>
> "She'll be back any second now" he told himself, trying to keep his mind
> clear in this inverted position. She'll pick me up, retrieve my medicine,
> and drive us both to our new home with its warm bathroom. His bladder,
> compressed under his slumped posture, began signalling to him that
familiar
> urge that he no longer took lightly. He felt lightheaded from being
trapped
> beneath the steering wheel and frustrated  from staring at his bottle
which
> he could not grab.
>
> He heard voices outside the van as they went by.."she was walking into
this
> photo place when she apparently had a massive heart attack....once they
get
> her to the hospital, I'm sure they'll try to call her relatives". He tried
> to call out to the strangers walking by their van but his voice was too
> soft and weak to be heard as they continued on. As the blood rushing to
his
> head caused the darkness to descend upon him, he heard one last voice. "I
> heard it's supposed to go below freezing tonight..better make sure and
> bundle up".
>
>
>