7/16/2024
Gail and I just returned from a trip to Harpers Ferry and Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Shepherdstown, one of the oldest towns in the state, has retained much of its nineteenth-century heritage. With a population of less than 2,000 souls, it attracts visitors from all over the Mid-Atlantic region. Gail and I flew there to meet with four of our oldest friends and, with them, to attend the Contemporary American Theater Festival. We saw two plays. The last was a one-man show held in the historic Shepherdstown Opera House. Built in 1910, the venue was never an opera house at all. Instead, it offered a mix of entertainment, primarily silent moving picture shows and vaudeville performances. These continued for several years, establishing the theater as a cultural hub in the town. The theater was renovated recently. It is a small space, but it was a perfect fit for the one-man show, “The Happiest Man on Earth,” that we saw. The play, about one man’s experience in the Holocaust, is very powerful and wonderfully acted.
With regard to Parkinson’s, this past week saw a rapid acceleration in the severity of the disorder. I am walking slower, speaking softer, drooling more often, having more difficulty rising from a chair, and am more tired. I’ve tried increasing the dose of ropinirole and going off of it for a day. Neither strategy seemed to help. My neurologist has suggested Neupro, a patch that delivers medicine transdermally, bypassing the intestines. Whether this works or not will be determined in the next few weeks. I started on the medicine today.