Drooling

When my older labrador, Sally, sees a piece of meat, she gets very excited and starts to drool.  It is not attractive, but she has no control over it since it is involuntary. I usually just take a paper towel and wipe her mouth. It is a little disgusting, but it is totally normal -for a dog. 

A few months ago, I was enjoying a lovely luncheon with some girlfriends when I noticed that I was drooling! Unlike, Sally, I was not salivating because of a piece of steak. For me, the dripping saliva came from the weaken muscles around my mouth. It was disgusting, but I was able to wipe the drool with my napkin without much attention. It was a new symptom for me and I was not ready for it (although, who is?). As always, I decided to address the issue directly, so I said to my friends, “Don’t mind me, I am just drooling.” It threw everyone off a bit and they honestly did not know what to say. So I broke the awkward moment with a little humor by dabbing the drool very dainty-like with my napkin and using my vintage French, I said, “Pardonez-moi!” We all laughed.

Parkinson’s effects so many parts of the body. You lose your sense of smell, you blink much less and so your eyes get very dry, you develop a flat affect (non expressive facial look), you get sticky words and you drool. On the bright side: I do not smell yucky odors,  others cannot tell what I am thinking by my facial expressions and I have plenty of spit! So I drool? Big deal.It could be worse, it always can be worse.