How can you tell what is a standard 43 year old, slightly overweight normal ache from a Parky symptom? Its crazy but since the first hint of Parky from the Neurologist it feels like my body is falling apart. Is a frozen shoulder type of pain really a frozen shoulder or is it something that I can do nothing about cos it's Parky time again? I know I need a hernia operation sometime so is that cos of Parky, I needed a hernia op 10 years ago when I was in my 30's too. I don't want my GP to think that as well as Parky, I'm a raving hypochondriac too!
I think, in my case, a little knowledge goes too far and I'm probably producing psychosomatic symptoms based on what I've read. I'm hoping that when the dust settles, and it has to, life will go back to as close to normal as possible but can you ever put Parky to the back of your mind or does he continue to gnaw away at your consciousness? I'm so far lucky that I can manage without meds and I intend to fight Parky all the way, as long as poss without taking them. Maybe that makes me naive or stupid.
A friend said to me the other day, 'when we're young we think we're invincible and everything is black and white but as we grow old we get wiser and we realise it's all shades of grey'.....I think he'd just been reading his wife's mummy porn book sensation but I know what he meant.
Hi Digs,
I've not started meds yet either, but probably need to soon. My shoulder pain was my first symptom and I'm hoping it will be eased by meds when I start them. Shoulder pain mimicking frozen shoulder is well documented as an early PD sign. Not sure your hernia has anything to do with PD though!
I've not started meds yet either, but probably need to soon. My shoulder pain was my first symptom and I'm hoping it will be eased by meds when I start them. Shoulder pain mimicking frozen shoulder is well documented as an early PD sign. Not sure your hernia has anything to do with PD though!
Blow me, another symptom! Digs - I’ve been doing just as you. In fact, it’s how I first thought I really might have P when I read a list of symptoms (in a dance mag, actually) and realised I had a good half of them. And yes, Silverkins is right about frozen shoulder - which I noticed two or thee years before dx.
Then, another problem is that P symptoms are, at the start, rather common - tiredness, aches, stiffness, bad typing and handwriting. You mention one of those to your friends and it’s “we’re all tired these days.”
So Digs, I agree - it’s impossible to say what’s P itself, what’s a side-effect of P meds . . . and what’s unrelated: “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” as Freud probably never said.
As to meds or not to meds . . .my view (based on, oooh six months’ experience) is, take them when you want to don’t wait until you need to.
Finally, can you put P to the back of your mind? Well it doesn’t rule my life, but it’s rarely far from my thoughts: there’s this forum, then 3x a day meds, then every time I type and my tremor doobles uuppp on characters.
S
Then, another problem is that P symptoms are, at the start, rather common - tiredness, aches, stiffness, bad typing and handwriting. You mention one of those to your friends and it’s “we’re all tired these days.”
So Digs, I agree - it’s impossible to say what’s P itself, what’s a side-effect of P meds . . . and what’s unrelated: “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” as Freud probably never said.
As to meds or not to meds . . .my view (based on, oooh six months’ experience) is, take them when you want to don’t wait until you need to.
Finally, can you put P to the back of your mind? Well it doesn’t rule my life, but it’s rarely far from my thoughts: there’s this forum, then 3x a day meds, then every time I type and my tremor doobles uuppp on characters.
S
I too started to believe that all my aches and pains including a 'frozen shoulder' were all down to being diagnose with pd. in order to feel like i was doing something positive i bought an exercise bike which i use nearly every day and i downloaded some stretching exercises from the Parkinson Society Canada website. Amazingly i now can raise my arm right above my head and i have far less stiffness in general. I cannot believe that i just accepted the stiff shoulder as a minor irritation and didnt do anything about it before. This has taught me that I can make improvements to my general fitness and to be wary of blaming everything on pd!