<h1>Feelin' Groovy</h1>

I knew it! I knew it all along! Parkinson's is too complex to be pigeonholed into one of the 5 stages of the Hoehn and Yahr staging chart. I didn't fit into any stage completely. I thought my PD was relatively benign but Hoehn and Yahr had me believing I was deep into stage 3. I am not.

The Davis Phinney Foundation divides the progress of PD into 3 stages:

EARLY STAGE

• One side of the body affected (so far that is me but occasionally I feel it might be making forays into my left side.
• decreased stride or dragging the feet (no dragging but decreased stride for me)
• decreased arm swing (nope)
• scuffling of toes (yup)
• change in leg co-ordination when running or cycling (yup - no longer do those)
• sense of muscle fatigue (not sure. I feel fine right now)
• difficulty completing repetitive movements (not that I have noticed)
• trouble with hand coordination (nope)
• reduced range of motion in shoulders, shoulder pain (got both in spades)
• mask-like face (don't think so)
• decreased or small handwriting (Oh boy! have I ever!)

MID STAGE

• symptoms on both sides (not yet)
• Soft speech (Oh, Oh)
• mild swallowing problems (sometimes)
• flex or bent posture (have to admit, that's me)
• motor fluctuations and dyskinesia (nope)

LATE STAGE

• balance problems (sometimes)
• increased shuffle, freezing of gait & festination (all three but that was 4 years ago - never again after that)
• significant speech and swallowing problems (speech yes, swallowing no)
• drooling (no)
• rigidity in the neck (yup)

Well that clears things up! I am either in the first, second or third stage, (or all three)

Right now, I feel great.