Feeling Better...

Day 68

Today is the 59th day of taking a full dose of Azilect and the 18th day on a full dose of Pramipexole.

For the first time since my diagnosis I am beginning to feel better. I credit this to the fact that the Pramipexole is kicking and to my OT and PT exercises. Logically, there was no reason that I should have felt worse immediately after the diagnosis. After the initial relief of finally finding out what was wrong with with me, however, a period of mourning did set in.

 Early Warning Signs
 I thought that might be helpful to list some of the early warnings in order from the date of diagnosis.

1.  Depression, 10+ years
2.  Frozen shoulder, 2 years
3.  Anxiety with some related insomnia, 18 months
4.  Holding my right arm and awkward way, 1 year
5.  Shuffling gait, 1 year
6.  Toes curling under (dystonia?), 6 months

While I have struggled with cyclothymia for roughly 25 years, real depression set in about 10 years ago. My doctor thinks and I now agree, that this was the first early warning sign.   Although my life's circumstances were certainly not good at that time, after having been diagnosed with cyclothymia many years prior, something made me give in and finally start taking medication. I now think that the depression (which is half of cyclothymia) really escalated. I also now know that depression and anxiety are NOT the results of being diagnosed with Parkinson's but actual physical symptoms of the disease itself.

Due to the fact that the other symptoms/early warning signs are more self-explanatory and have been described in this blog previously, I will not re-examine them in this post.

Back to the Present
Today, I am feeling much better. When anxiety sets in, I label it "not real" and this allows me to move on. My right arm is swinging more naturally when I walk, I am shuffling less and my gait has improved. Of course, with the drugs come side effects and the one that I am currently experiencing is inconvenient but not entirely unpleasant and I will leave it at that.

Final Note
Medical marijuana is beginning to show some promise with Parkinson's patients. It relaxes the patient, reduces tremors and has other positive effects. If I get to that stage in the disease, I am buying some edibles and chowing down!