To have Parkinson’s means that you live your life experiencing symptoms as if you are playing roulette. You wake up every morning hoping you will have a good day without any new symptoms and you just never know what’s going to drop and how you’ll be affected. In which pocket will the ball land? Will it be 17, Black, you win, and have a great day? Or 00 Green, you lose, and have a bad day?

Parkinson’s disease (PD) has many symptoms. Now in my sixth year of having PD I sometimes look at these symptoms as if they are milestones on a checklist.
Yesterday I got to tick “Falling out of bed” off my list. Yup. One of those acting out your dreams moments, of which I have had many, got dangerous. In my dream I was twisting around, changing direction and walking. So I must have twisted myself right out of bed and onto the floor, face first. The sensation of truly falling, not dream falling is difficult to describe. I had no feelings, there was no “me” present. I was mostly unconscious but was aware of feeling my dead weight “THUD” onto the floor. I woke up face down with my neck bent in a way it doesn’t normally bend. I am not Gumby!

I checked myself to see if I was bleeding or broke anything. Thankfully, no. I crawled back into bed to try to sleep a couple more hours. When I woke up I could barely move. My neck was frozen and about an 8/9 on the pain scale. The right side of my face was swollen and hurt. I have rug burn across my cheek and a fat lower lip.  Ice packs covered half my face and my neck, and spine. So that morning after the fall my roulette ball landed on 00 Green. It was a bad day.