Buttons and bows

Parkinson’s affects fine motor skills, which can make many simple tasks quite fiddly and frustrating. Do you work to get the skills back, or adapt to make life easier? 

Some 18 months before my diagnosis I posted on Facebook that:

“I fear my fell walking days may be limited not by physical frailty but my inability to engage a Berghaus zip under pressure. Grrr!”

Zips: If it started to rain while I was out walking, it had usually stopped by the time (after a lot of swearing) I’d zipped up my jacket. To begin with I blamed Berghaus, which wasn’t really fair – other outdoor manufacturers are available, many of them fitting much wonkier zips to their jackets. It was my problem, and I began to understand what ‘all fingers and thumbs’ meant.

Bows: I love cooking but I’d started to take a lot more time over preparation. I’d lost my appetite by the time the food reached the table.

Some days I took ages to get started because I couldn’t even tie the apron strings at the back. It wasn’t one of those ones that ties round the front like they do on Masterchef.

Buttons: Until I joined my local brass band, I hadn’t worn a blazer and tie since 1968. No-one was looking at my top half anyway, as I had a flat chest, long legs and very short skirt.  Now if I’m turning up for a band gig complete with blazer and tie I don’t feel properly dressed until the top button is done up. I’d found this harder and harder.

Shoelaces: I used to struggle to tie the laces on my trainers, so guess what – they kept coming undone! A trip hazard and a pain in the neck for anyone who had to wait for me to do them up again.

With a diagnosis and a new motivation to get back to running, I visited Chivers Sports in Carlisle. It’s one of those perfect sports shops where they take time and care to send you out with the right shoes for your gait and mileage. Packing my choice, the kind and knowledgeable Gordon asked if I wanted elastic laces fitted. Oh, the dilemma! Do I re-learn the skill of tying laces? Or adapt?

Working harder

The answer is both. My fingers and thumbs work harder for me now. This is partly down to the specialised PD Warrior exercises I’ve been doing. And partly due to therapy putty, a kind of grown-up Play-Doh, which comes in colour coded densities from hard to soft. I roll and squeeze the putty between thumb and fingers, gradually building up strength.

Zip tips

Here are some zip tips that probably work just as well if you don’t have Parkinson’s.

• Don’t try to engage the zip far away at the bottom of the jacket on the other side of your tummy and rolled up layers of fleece
• Bring it up to your chest where you can see it properly
• This means deciding which part of your varifocals to look through – or maybe take your glasses off altogether?
• However, if it is really raining hard please ignore all the above and don’t be afraid to ask for help!

I’m also working hard on the fine tuning of apron strings and buttons, with some success. But when it comes to running shoes, Gordon and I decided that two minutes faffing around with shoelaces could be two minutes out on the road with your friends. Elastic won. It works, and the shoes fit much more snugly.

What success have you had with relearning your fine motor skills? And where have you just decided that elastic is easier? Let me know.

Play > Buttons and bows > Dinah Shore

This Academy award-winning song featured in the 1948 film The Pale Face starring Bob Hope and Jane Russell.  “Let’s go where I’ll keep on wearin’ those frills and flowers and buttons and bows” tells me “Don’t let complicated fasteners stop you going where you want to go.”