Hello, I'm new to the group my name is Rachel I have been diagnosed with essential tremors now for going on about three years. I have a good neurologist that I see, she's very kind and actually cares about her patients. As for medication I take propranolol daily and it helps but we recently had to increase my dose because I was having breakthrough tremors in the evenings. My tremors started out small and grew I didn't really pay too much attention to it because I had other health issues that were my main focus at the time. I think the turning point for me was one day when I went to pick up medications at the pharmacy and I couldn't sign my name, I couldn't hold the pen, I was trying and it seemed like the harder I tryed the worse it got. The store was very busy and there were a lot of people waiting and I felt like all the eyes in the room were on me, staring at me because here I am standing and I can't even sign my name I scribbled  something and very quickly exited only to get into my truck and start crying. After I went home and thought long and hard about what I needed to do things had escalated and I had developed a bit of a limp my balance was not good it's still isn't and things I did in my daily life began to be harder to do, for example my dog I love my dogs I couldn't put on their leash my hands were shaking so bad that I couldn't click the connectors together I ended up sitting in the hallway crying like a baby luckily my husband came home and I think like most husbands would freaked when he saw his wife on the floor crying you know the kind of crying where you can't speak and when you do try to speak nothing comes out but mumbles because you can't breathe. I decided I needed to find a good neurologist so we researched several and I found one that I thought I would feel comfortable with and I schedule an appointment.  I was very quickly diagnosed with essential tremors intention tremors meaning that whenever I tried to do something my tremors got worse. The parts of my body that were being affected where my legs and my arms and hands , extremities she said I had a weird gate like the way I walk was funny I have a limp on one side I can't help it.  She put me on medication and I'm doing pretty good.  I see my doctor about once every six months now I can see her sooner if I need to and if I have any problems I can always give a phone call and she will call me back.

When I was diagnosed I couldn't find too much in the way of resources you know people I could talk to so it was a little hard for me, I was very self-conscious of my shaking hands at the dinner table. I feel like I have a good grasp of things though now and when I saw the group I felt like I wanted to be part of it.  My tremors do get worse when I have higher amounts of stress or when I'm emotional so I try to keep things pretty chill and mellow. I think most people would think that me and my husband are boring. We don't go out and party we don't even keep alcohol in the house we like to stay home, I love nature and we go birdwatching with our local Audubon group. I also love my animals we have 4 dogs now all were rescued and they're all amazing 2 rambunctious brothers that are fixing to be six months that are huge for their age, their mother  a beautiful American foxhound mix she had a little bit of emotional scarring but she's doing wonderful now I love her dearly and last but not least we have our youngest a little Lhasa also a rescue.  I find a lot of comfort with my animals they are very loving and they seem to have a sense of when things aren't good and we need a little extra love.  I hope to get to know some of the other people here and be here to support others in need. I find a lot of my strength is in my faith, I'm not the kind of person that pushes religion on others I don't really care what people believe everybody has faith in something and that's where I find my strength.  I know that for me I feel like sometimes I'm climbing a mountain that's covered and thorns barefoot but on the otherside of that mountain is an awesome waterslide so I just got to keep on climbing.