What might be my last post on Parkinson's for a while

 

Here we are at Friday and I am feeling good this morning and being Friday I am doing a post about Parkinson’s.

This week we are talking about Parkinson’s and the older person, being older means we have symptoms that just go with being older.

Things like arthritis, vision problems, shortness of breath and with men prostate problems, as well as having a bad memory, falling over and becoming confused.

There is also the pain that comes with Parkinson’s due to our bodies not moving and rigidity we have but when you throw in having arthritis it can be more frustrating.

These things can make being diagnosed with Parkinson’s when you are over 60 a bit difficult because many doctors will just write those symptoms of as being older.

You may be thinking what about the tremor well that can also just be put down to getting older as some older people will have a slight tremor due to their age.

Some people don’t realise that someone can have Parkinson’s for years before being diagnosed. I first noticed a slight tremor in my little finger in my right hand which I took no notice of until it spread to the whole hand. I asked the GP I was seeing at the time he just shrugged it off and said I was getting older. I was around 54 at the time, but after I changed doctors, the new doctor took it more seriously and referred me to a neurologist over at the hospital.

The neurologist said I had a functional tremor that would not get worse. As time went on things got worse and the GP I was seeing left the practice and I started seeing someone else, who contacted the hospital’s neurology department I should be seen again, I was but was still told it was a functional tremor even the hospital movement disorder doctor said it was functional.

Things continued to get worse and when I asked my GP about the pain in my arms and the stiffness as well as other things would say it is the Parkinson’s you don’t have.

I finally got so bad that I asked to be referred to another neurologist which I was, but that guy wasn’t sure what was wrong and referred me to another one in Sydney and it was Dr Babu who arranged for me to be seen a movement disorder team not just one person. That was when I was diagnosed.