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A little of this and a little of that

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First, I want to apologize if your paper delivery was late last Wednesday.

A communications breakdown within our office earlier in the week created the situation. Carrier Ray Giaquinto was unable to do his regular route on Wednesday morning. It was the first time in the more than 20 years he has been delivering The Times that his 521 customers were missed. I want to assure all of his customers who called in that he is just fine. He did call in to say he would not be in to deliver papers on Tuesday night due to a death in his family. The note with the information never got to Tammie, our delivery coordinator. Ray and I thank you for expressing your concerns.

Those businesses who question the readership of The Times should have been in our office last Wednesday morning. Our phones were ringing off the hook from people calling in and asking, “Where’s my Times?”

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Diane and I are attending the luncheon for the Fountain Hills Parkinson’s Support group today at the Wicked Six restaurant at the SunRidge Canyon Golf Course.

April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month and I will be having my columns on that topic most of this month.

Can you believe it will be four years this August since I had my Deep Brain Stimulation surgery at the Mayo Clinic?

It seems I have been asked by an increasing number of people lately about how I am doing and would I have it done knowing what I feel like now.

My answer is an emphatic “yes.”

I still have no tremors or dyskinesia, which were two of the three problems I had before the surgery.

The third problem was my walking. I’ve fallen maybe four times since the surgery. A fall is something I have to take seriously. I could hit the caps which are the points at which they drilled through my skull. There is also the possibility I could dislodge the leads in my brain that receive the electrical impulses from my battery pack in my chest.

This is also the reason I don’t play golf or tennis any more.

I had my battery pack replaced in March 2014.

I got not quite three years of service out of that pack. I was told after the surgery that my replacement battery may only be good for a year.

Dr. Lyons of the Mayo Clinic, who performed my surgery, told me he and other doctors who do the surgery have been talking to the manufacturer of the DBS device that they want to see improvement in the life of the battery.

I have fallen twice in Las Vegas. (No, I wasn’t drunk or anything). In fact, one time we were just unpacking the car when we arrived at our daughter’s house. The other was in our room at the timeshare we have. I just started going down for no apparent reason.

I asked my doctor upon my return if I could see the physical therapist again.

I went to see him, but as you might know, I was having a good day and walked briskly around the clinic. He said I didn’t need to see him again, but he did give me a review of the routines we practiced the first time I saw him.

My buddy, Frank, and I are still walking around Target most days. I also ride our elliptical machine each morning for 10 minutes (I also do my stretching routine and light weight workout daily) and I ride my stationary bike in the evening for 20 minutes.

I learned early on you have to exercise to see any improvement.

I’ll talk some more next week about my life since DBS surgery.