Parkinson's Disease Support Group
Parkinson's disease is a movement disorder often characterized by muscle rigidity, tremor, a slowing of physical movement, and in extreme cases, a loss of physical movement. The primary symptoms of Parkinsons are due to excessive muscle contraction, normally caused by the insufficient formation and action of dopamine, which is produced in the dopaminergic neurons of the...
Not sure how interesting this will be, but thought I'd chronicle my week off meds here. Depending on how it goes, I may have to cut it short. I'm involved in National Novel Writing Month (where you try to write at least 50K words on a novel during the month of November). Right now I have to invest at least 4 hours a day to get at least 1625 words, the average needed to make 50K in a month. If this slows my typing speed down too far, I may have to relent and get back on meds.
Last Sinemet pill I took was Sunday morning, around 8 am. Most of yesterday I did fine, didn't seem to be much extra in the way of dystonia, but maybe a little more tremors. I wrote for 3 hours and got in 1447 words on the novel. By comparison, pre-PD, I averaged a little over 1K per hour, so normally I would have typed 3K in that amount of time.
Today, still the dystonia isn't noticeably worse, but the tremors have increased in my left hand. Currently, typing is a little harder with my left hand.
That said, I was expecting to be much worse off at this point. We'll see how it goes as more of the Sinemet gets flushed out of my system.
Last Sinemet pill I took was Sunday morning, around 8 am. Most of yesterday I did fine, didn't seem to be much extra in the way of dystonia, but maybe a little more tremors. I wrote for 3 hours and got in 1447 words on the novel. By comparison, pre-PD, I averaged a little over 1K per hour, so normally I would have typed 3K in that amount of time.
Today, still the dystonia isn't noticeably worse, but the tremors have increased in my left hand. Currently, typing is a little harder with my left hand.
That said, I was expecting to be much worse off at this point. We'll see how it goes as more of the Sinemet gets flushed out of my system.
good luck
Brer T.
Woke up with a little more pain in my left arm, and can feel a bit more stiffness in my left leg. Tremors about the same as yesterday. Despite all that, wrote 733 words in an hour and a half. Not too bad. Will probably get more time in on the novel today in hopes of getting caught up, as now I'm officially behind.
Haven't noticed any of the other symptoms being any worse or better yet.
Which reminds me, it dawned on me the other day that I've not noticed as much of a problem drooling as I had been doing. Not sure if that is a result of a supplement I'm taking or the Sinemet. But so far no resurgence of it since being off Sinemet.
So far, so good. Fingers aren't as controllable, more tremors. Dystonia hits some, but can't tell that it has become significantly worse yet. So far all is bearable. Onward.
This is the fourth book in a young adult sci-fi series. The first three are published. Mind Game, Hero Game, and Virtual Game by R. L. Copple if anyone is interested.
As the day has progressed, the dystonia has gotten worse. Typing is difficult and done with a lot of backspacing. Tremors have gotten worse too. I'll see how it goes tonight, but not looking real promising.
Please keep updating us. Just this morning I noticed how bad my dysinkesia is when I was standing in front of the mirror. Good luck.
Anyway, I digress. Deb, we did buy a Tai Chi DVD. Watched the warm portion. That's as far as we got. Bad, I know.
Exercise is the one area I haven't done too good at. At the beginning, we were members of a gym and we swam every night. But funds cut that short. Now, most of my exercise comes from helping my wife clean houses. We cleaned a house and an office today.
Pain wise, I did better today than I did yesterday. The stiffness in my left arm is just as bad. Typing is pretty slow. In an hour and a half last night, I wrote 538 words. I've done that in 20 minutes before.
Also noticed today, for the first time, hints of drooling problems resurfacing, and my nose has started running a lot more. Tremors about the same as yesterday. Dystonia about the same too, but with not as much pain as yesterday.
That's how day 4 has gone. I'm hanging in there.
Brer T
Tremors have gotten worse as well as the dystonia in my left arm. Almost constant shaking including some in my right hand. It seemed to get worse as the day progressed. I wonder if some of that had to do with driving, adding stress. Helped clean two more houses today.
Drooling a little more. Still have a runny nose. Left hand cramping some. Pain not too bad, though. Otherwise, okay. I should be a pretty picture for the neuro on Monday. lol.
Typing speed has slowed to a crawl. I didn't do anything on the novel last night. Don't think I'll do much if any tonight. It's a struggle to type. I'd consider taking meds, but I've made it this far. Just three more days to go.
I did order a natural muscle relaxer last night. Suppose to arrive Friday. We'll see if that helps the dystonia for the weekend. It is vervain. I'll let you know how it works.
Now I think I'll go make some Chamomile tea.
Decided to make this the final day of the med holiday as Brer calls it.
Symptoms about the same as yesterday. But I didn't have any work to help with today other than fixing dinner.
That said, decided I had enough going on this weekend that would induces stress, like driving in Austin traffic, that my tremors would be going haywire. Didn't want to go through all that without some help.
So I decided to start back on Sinemet tonight. Already I can tell the typing is a little better. Figured I know enough from the experience that I can tell the doctor about it. So this is my last entry for this experiment.
Cole thanks for sharing your days with us!!!!!