Micrographia - I've got to admit its getting smaller

One symptom of PD is micrographia, very small handwriting as fine motor movments deteriorate. I tried to describe it in an earlier post. It is as if the brain knows what it should be doing, but the hand stiffens and slows down as the pen moves. No amount of concentration helps.

Even in my parky state, my signature is readable. The picture below shows my signature when the drugs kick in and my signature when the drugs are no longer working. Still not too bad, but it can be worse than this example.

A better example, that I found online, is below. The top signature is when the writer is off drugs and the one below is when the writer is on drugs.

Fortunately, my handwriting is still better than a friend of mine, who does not have PD, and whose handwriting is indecipherable and I wonder if all doctors have PD. Their prescriptions are unreadable except by the pharmists who, I believe, have special decoder rings.

You may not be able to read a doctor's handwriting and prescription, but you'll notice his bills are neatly typewritten. (Earl Wilson)