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What was your first PD symptom that caused you to seek medical advice?
At my annual physical, I told my PCP that my handwriting was deteriorating. After getting multiple consults and opinions, PD was confirmed. On reflection, a month prior, while volunteering at an athletic event, I noticed that when I was rolling posters for the athlete goodie bag, other people were rolling 5 posters to my 1. I believe this was the start of losing my fine motor skills.
Check out my article on the start of my PD journey.
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8 Replies
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Left arm tremor. Very slight when stressed. But on diagnosis discovered that loss of sense of smell 10 years earlier was first sign.
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Hi John, interesting what you said about loss of smell 10 years prior to diagnosis. I am just noticing now that my sense of smell seems to come and go. I was diagnosed in 2015. This disease certainly has some strange and varied symptoms.
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I first noticed physical problems on the racquetball court. I would follow the ball but would not / could not move to setup a return. Sometimes the ball would actually hit me! And when I did hit the ball for a return, I either had little power or a very bad shot, or both. I thought I was experiencing sudden onset aging. I had a hunch it was a neurological problem, and made an appointment with the neurology clinic. The first neurologist I saw, said quickly that she wanted me to see a movement neurologist. I did, and it took him minutes to diagnose me. Later, after learning more about PD, I realized that I had had symptoms about six years previously, when I was finding difficulty with my gait. I had attributed that to changing eyesight and the wrong glasses.
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Hi Paul, thanks for sharing your story. From what others have told me, it seems fairly common that people has PD long before they were diagnosed. I thin one of the challenges for people over 60 is that PD symptoms and symptoms of aging can be one and the same. Do you still try to play racquetball?
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No, I no longer play racquetball. I did try twice within about 18 months – 2 years after the diagnosis. I was a complete bumbler on the court, and had such pain later, that I have not returned. ~ For me, the thing that separated PD from aging as racquetball hinderance (no pun intended), is that several of the group members were almost as old as me, and most are still playing. Quality is relative to the group as long as the group stays together. For me, camaraderie and the game were what I enjoyed, and miss the most.
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Paul, that must have been hard for you to give up something you loved. Parkinson’s is a disease of so many losses. If Rock Steady Boxing for PD is in your area, I highly recommend it for the camaraderie in addition to the other physical benefits of the class. https://rocksteadyboxing.org/find-a-class/
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Tremor in my right hand. I had been, sort of, hiding it, sitting on it, ’til my daughter asked “What’s the score with the shaking?”
Not too long after that I went to the doctor’s saying I think I may have Parkinson’s Disease. After a few physical tests he said “I think you may be right”.
It was about a year later that I went to a specialist & was officially diagnosed.
I started off with a pill, Sinemet 25/100 3 times a day, for a few weeks – moving to 4 times a day.
Can’t say the pills seem to make much difference ! Maybe help a bit with constipation 🙂 Still don’t sleep well
easily fatigued, eyelids glued together. Some of this stuff, with hindsight, has been going on for many years.
Difficult to tell, I’m naturally bone-idle – or thought I was !!Cheers, Bill.
P.S. Sorry I’ve got carried away here & should have spread this over numerous forums …
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No worries, Bill, thanks for sharing your story. I also am not 100% sure the Sinemet is helping me either. I dont trust drugs… I find it interesting you say your eyelids are glued together. I have has that problem for over a year now, and the eye doctor says it is bletharitis, more common with age and potentially exacerbated by PD. Right now, the fatigue plagues me the most.
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