Swaying To The Music

If you have Parkinson’s Disease, you know about swaying. Some of this movement is from the disease and some of it is from the medication. It is a balancing act trying to control the tremors, rigidity, imbalance, freezing and dealing with the side effects of the medicine. One of the most common and recognizable effects for me is swaying of the body, especially the upper part. So to be clear, the treatment of my movement disorder causes me to move. Yikes!

Most of the day, I am busy and the swaying does not really get in my way. The back and forth rhythmic moving gets lost while I do chores or errands. The swaying appears the most when I am standing still or sitting for awhile.  If I wait in line at the grocery store or post office, I find myself moving back and forth or side to side. I look like I have ants in my pants and just cannot stand or sit still. However, the majority of the time, I prefer to sway rather than shake.

Once a week, the stars aline and things work our wonderfully for a gal with Parkinson’s on meds that make her sway. I take line dancing classes. In my session, I sway, but I appear to be in rhythm with the music and the dance steps. My skirt sways while I sway. It works. I finally have found a benefit of the dyskinesia. Add an excellent teacher, dear friends dancing next to me  and hip music and I actually feel like I belong. I focus very intently on getting my brain’s messages to my feet, hands and hips. Everything works in coordination with the music, at least most of the time, and it feels great. For awhile, I do not feel like I have a disability, but rather I am an able body sixty-something who is just swaying to the music.