Navigation Part II - Not Me

PD moves in mysterious ways.  No one can predict its course.  Many have tried but their answers have not impressed me.  For example, many people track PD using the 5 stages.  Not me. The stages are too scary.  I'd rather drift through the rest of my life, just taking  PD as it comes.  I don't need to know the future.

 a good  summary of the stages can be found at            https://parkinsonsdisease.net/ basic/stages

How does one navigate these waters part one

So, so many times I am asked how did you know you had parkinson's.  I only knew I was a victim when my right hand started bouncing  around on its own, but here are the signs that one should be aware of:

     1.  cramped handwriting or other writing changes.*

     2.  tremor, especially in finger, hand or foot.*

      3.  uncontrollable movements during sleep.

      4.  limb stiffness or slow movement (bradykinesia)*

      5.  voice changes.*
      6.  rigid facial expression or masking.
      7.  stooped posture.*

                                                                        * my symptoms

Let's take each of my symptoms and elaborate,

a)  Writing - while making study cards (3 by 5), I noticed that after 1 or 2 sentences, my hand would cramp and the my writing would diminish in size.  Didn't think anything of it -

b)  tremor - my whole right arm was choc-a-block with twitches and tremors.  At first only my right hand gave me grief, but that was to change.

c)  Bradykinesia -   I shuffled, moving at glacial speed, uable to heel-and-toe for more than 20m or so.  Now I was embarrassingly last to finish every meal.  I started to take smaller portions and, as a positive side-effect, Ilost weight, but I was still slower than most of my tablemates

d)  voice -  what voice!  It was all but disappearing - like that low-talker on Seinfeld.

e) posture - I resembled the Hunchback of Notre Dame without the hump

Stay tuned to how I changed my parkie ways and have remained relatively normal going into my 11h year.

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Mind Games

I continue to think, I think, that I am getting more off balance. The problem is, there are times when I exercise when I am full-on balance. Last Sunday I had a particularly bad attack, so much so that my daughter all but carried me to my car. Let us hope it was an isolated attack. Funny thing about my PD, it comes and goes. When it comes, it does so in all its fury and then it goes away and rarely returns.
examples

• Early on I would get the most awful cramps twisting my leg and causing my foot to turn inward and upward.
• I called it "the beast". The beast has gone into hibernation.
• You might recall me meeting a woman on an elevator who asked "what floor?" and when I answered, my mouth was so full of spittle, it sprayed the air, I looked and felt like a moronic child. Fortunately, this has not been repeated.
• festination is a puzzle. I have had only one incident that can be described as a classical festination. I have had had falls but no further full festinating. One doctor explained the cause and told me it would probably be the only time it happens.

Now it is a balance. Am I really balanced or do I just think I am or does the balance issue come and go like my other symptoms? I can confirm I was actually off balance last Sunday but a couple of days later, I could walk a straight line, moving toe-to-toe.

As I have said before, we blame every ache and pain on PD. It is better to seek a doctor's opinion and one of these days I will give that a try.

Is there a psychiatrist in the house?