PARKINSON's
DISEASE IN MY EXPERIENCE
The main symptoms of parkinson’s disease are:
- Slowed Movement (called Bradykinesia)
- Rigid Muscles
- Impaired Posture and Balance
- Loss of Automatic Movement
- Speech and Writing Changes (smaller and softer)
- Tremor
It may also come with:
- thinking difficulties
- emotional changes
- swallowing problems
- sleep problems
- bladder problems, constipation
- blood pressure changes
- smell dysfunction
- pain
- sexual dysfunction
The cause of Parkinson’s Disease is unknown, but the currently known factors are genetic predisposition and environmental toxins. In my case, I have a recessive gene marker called Park2 which indicates a more slowly progressing type of Parkinson’s Disease considered Juvenile Onset. My body doesn’t seem to process environmental “toxins” normally. In Parkinson’s disease, nerve cells in the brain that produce dopamine ( a neurotransmitter) gradually break down, die, or maybe turn off. The main medications for Parkinson’s disease aim to replace dopamine.
I experience most of what is listed above, but in varying degrees in a day, week or month. I take medications that, when they are working help me to appear almost normal. But there are times that I cannot move at all, when every movement causes pain, when my thinking is foggy, my balance off, when I am so tired that I can’t think. During those time, I just have to be still. It will pass and then I will get some time where I can move, play, work on projects around the house, go for a walk, do a workout, go out.
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