27 for Parkinsons ... Day 3 Bills journey with LBD/Parkinsons/Dementia - whichever label you want to use began long before we left Queensland to return to Sale -I'm uncertain if they started before or after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer but they go back 8-10 years. According to Dr Nathan whom we saw in Traralgon in July one of the first symptoms is Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behaviour disorder - it is actually thought to be a core feature of LBD. It occurs when the brain is unable to paralyse the body during dreams. The person 'acts out' their dreams sometimes resulting in injuries to themselves or their sleeping partner. As it can occur many years before the development of cognitive symptoms, REM sleep behaviour is a potential 'predictor' of LBD. Many times I'd be woken to Bill calling out, trying to catch a cricket ball - where he actually leapt out of bed and hit the window, laughing out loud, having regular conversations, often around 5-530 am (could never understand what he was saying though) another time he was trying to push a cow into the bails (yep it was me he was pushing), many a night he'd knock things off his bedside table. At the time we laughed these episodes off. However, over the years they became more frequent and were combined with hallucinations. Tomorrow I'll go into details on some of his hallucinations ... Yesterday my 'connection/communication' was answering some condolence messages. Spent sometime outside yesterday - planted the pansies I'd bought on Friday - rummaged round in Bills veggie patch and found some new potatoes ... lucky for me Dylan rang or the potatoes would have turned to charcoal .. oops forgot I turned them on to cook. Long chat with D as he drove out to Victoria Point beach, he'd never been there before - our call ended with him trying to find a parking spot. Days are long and lonely so its lovely to receive phone calls from family interstate ... especially when its almost two years since you had a huge hug and pat on the head from a grandson. Managed to get some washing done and dry between showers - don't recall seeing a mosquito in the 4 years we've been in this house until yesterday - two nice big fat ones are no longer around to spread disease, seems its just the weather for them wet and humid.