I want to shake free...👋🏻

Where Emma does personal care

Hello and big welcome to my new subscribers, I’m chuffed you are here! To my long-suffering subscribers…I love ya xx

I’d love to report that I feel refreshed and ready to go at it after my break. But you know…Parkinson’s. Anyway, blinking through the usual fug and sleeplessness I’m back in your inbox.

I’m going to be honest if I had known that Parkinson’s was such a hassle I would never have started it…

As per a reader's suggestion, I will tackle personal care. Now I am not talking about being done up to the nines 24/7. I am talking about the little bits that give us our dignity, touches that make the void more bearable. Self-care is important. Perhaps even more to those of us who are in a wrestling match with chronic illness.

We need to be the person we truly are and not just defined by our illness. And yes maybe that means bright red lipstick or a great shave at your local barber or allowing your loved ones to give you a massage. I don’t know you and can’t tell you what your self-care looks like but I know you must do it.

Hang on a sec Emma, must is a bit strong.

Yes, it is. Allowing ourselves to be loved is part of the wellness routine. Just as taking the medication and getting the exercise, accepting care and applying it, helps us feel better.

As a busy mother, writer and general domestic slave I well know how easy it is to let personal care drop off the radar. The last time I bothered to get a haircut was a year and a half ago for a funeral. Now partly it’s because I can’t sit for long before my Parkinson’s decides to pop in for a chat with the hairdresser about holidays. It’s partly because I don’t think I can justify the cost. But I know it feels amazing to look less wild woman of the back alleys of Aberdeen.

So do it, Emma. Yeah, well I’m crap at doing what I preach or at least when it comes to the hair.

I have started to allow my girls to paint my nails. Not something I used to do but somehow when the tremors are rampaging I like to enjoy the colours as my fingers skitter over everything I touch.

I probably wear more makeup than I used simply because I don’t really know who that is in the mirror anymore. I don’t look like the me I thought I was or ‘used’ to be. So instead of getting pissed about it, I’ve decided to forget the supposed to’s and judgement stuff and wear the goddam glitter, if it makes me smile.

Right so now I have ranted I think what was actually being asked was some real-life suggestions for us Parky folk. Always on point, dear readers, always.

My biggest make-up/skincare advice is anything that is in an easy-to-open pot and can be generally smeared without it mattering if it isn’t perfect…is perfect.

These little pots of delight are a great example. They stack, I can open even when shaking and a smear is subtle enough on the cheek or eyelid that you don’t go full clown. They aren’t cheap BUT they last a gazillion years.

Mascara and eyeliner are a nightmare. But this has been invented. I haven’t tried it if you have let me know!

Avoid anything with a blade…even safety razors in my hands are well, bloody. Wax or barber.

Hair…embrace the wild?

As may be apparent, I haven’t got much in the way of practical advice! Do what works for you. Don’t worry if you can’t always do it, the point is to feel good not add more pressure. On the days when I am stuck in bed then I put a beautiful silk scarf on the bed if I am too sore to wear it and just enjoy. A squirt of perfume - just for the love of…aim low and not your eye!

Aim small but hopefully, you’ll feel a lot better about being you.

with love

Emma x

This Week in Parkinson’s

• Movers & Shakers Podcast. A gollop of parkies hanging out in the pub trying to work out what it’s all about. Great listen.

• This thread generated some strong thoughts about the image of Parkinson’s. Have a read here.

• And the talented Mr Adventures in Parkinson’s Land is doing another amazing thing…help him out here.