I want to tell you about our sleeping quarters at the clinic where the Parkinson’s clinical trial is being conducted. There are 9 beds in the ward that John & I were assigned to. We could have our choice of beds. Wouldn’t you know… I picked a bed with a mind of its own?
We have individual curtains which could be pulled around for privacy, but no need. There are currently only 6 people here and with three wards, we have ours to ourselves. We are free to stay in our room, or sit in the dining room, or one of the two other rooms designated for TV watching, game playing, etc,
There is no specific time for waking up or retiring for the night. On the free days when there are only vital signs and pills to be taken, each participant has a few guidelines. For me, I am not to eat anything for three hours before they give me my dose (capsule) and I am not to eat anything for at least half-an-hour after dosing. I get my meds at 8:25 a.m [so breakfast is served at 8:55] Then the evening meal is served at 5:00 pm {I need to be through eating by 5:25} And my evening dose is 8:25.
I have read 3 novels & John is working on his third jigsaw puzzle. This is day 12 of the 30 day study.
On our first night here, I was pretty soundly asleep, when I heard the motor on the bed and it elevated my head slightly, and stopped. Due to my sleepiness, I didn’t rouse much. After the bed’s bizarre behavior had happened twice more, I had awakened sufficiently to recognize the need to trot to the little girl ‘s room. “What the?” When I returned and started to get into bed, the top half of the bed was all the way up! Perpendicular! As if sitting up straight!
The bed’s shenanigans had aroused John enough, that he thought I was having a hard time sleeping, not realizing I wasn’t in the bed, till I returned from the bathroom. We unplugged the bed, after coaxing it to lay back down.
When we reported the malfunction to the medic, Doug, in the morning, he related what had transpired, the last time the dorm had been used. The clinic had had a larger study going on and the room had been full of ladies. They had come running out of the room declaring one of the beds was possessed. He thought they were just messing with him, talking about poltergeist. The bed never acted out when he was in the room.
Doug had a good laugh, when John told him, ‘When he’d plugged the bed in, he’d noticed that the grounding prong was missing. So we’d figured that must account for the strange happenings.’
Standing up to Parkinson's 