Book Two in the Shaky Paws series, Carina And Her Care Partner Gramma, will be released in the near future. Once again, it will feature illustrations by Alison Paolini.
The first book,
Carson And His Shaky Paws Grampa, was designed to be a “conversation
starter” for adults to use with children for discussion regarding serious
illness. There were general references
to Parkinson’s (PD) symptoms and the deep brain stimulation therapy that I had
to “fix” my tremor. The non-specific
dialog was intentional so that the book might be helpful relative to a variety
of different illnesses. Two additional Shaky
Paws books are planned.
Carina And Her Care Partner Gramma was written to address PD specifically and to provide a
communication tool for Persons With Parkinson’s (PWP’s) to use with their
children or grandchildren. This book
provides much more detail specific to PD symptoms and mentions important issues
in the “PD world”, including deep brain stimulation therapy, the importance of
exercise, and the need for patient participation in clinical research
studies.
This book also emphasizes the importance
of care partners. Care partners are
most often women (since the majority of PWP’s are men), but there are also men,
family members or friends in this difficult and demanding role. We tend to focus on the challenges faced by
PWP’s, which is understandable.
However, PWP’s owe a huge debt of gratitude to these dedicated
individuals who do so much with, in many cases, far too little recognition or
expression of appreciation. Further, it
is important that resources be devoted not only to education of care partners,
but also to counseling and other support strategies to protect their wellness.
Carina, whose middle name is Marie (the
same as Linda’s mother, Ruth) and my wife have had a special relationship from
the start. Shortly after she was born,
we both noticed how much she seemed to resemble Ruth. We also realized that Carina’s parents were with us when we
visited Ruth in the hospital shortly before she died nine months before Carina
was born. As she grew older, it was
clear that Carina and Ruth share some common characteristics. It is comforting to think that Ruth’s spirit
lives on, somehow, through Carina.
The events and communication described
in this book are depicted, for the most part, the way they actually
occurred. I am sure Carina has not
retained all the detail described (she is only six years old), which raises the
point I made in the first book. As parents and grandparents, you know your
children and grandchildren best, and are best equipped to decide what to tell
them in these situations. Linda and my
strategies for communicating with our grandchildren continues to be adjusted
based on our perception of each child’s level of maturity and readiness to have
this kind of information shared with them.
I have, once again, included a page that
addresses our faith, which continues to be a great source of support, hope and
comfort for us.http://www.innovopublishing.com/innovo-store/digital-titles/product/343-carina-and-her-care-partner-gramma-by-kirk-hall-hardback.html
