Hi
I decided to try and look up a few things as I think my Dad has some form of Parkinsons. The only thing I knew about Parkinsons until the past few days were that it makes people shake. My Nan (Dads Mam) had Parkinsons for many years, I think she got it quite young. My Dad shakes a lot when he's not actually doing things with his hands so to speak and he keeps telling me things he's already told me....that's what prompted me to get some more info. He's only in his early 50's and his hands have been shaking for years, and more recently his jaw shakes too.
But upon doing some research on here I've come to realise that I have a lot of the symtpoms. I'm 35 but I shake and have done for a number of years, I just used to put it down to stress etc, but a few comments got me worrying I had something like Motor Neurone Disease or something like that. I was training to do tattoo's, and practicing on my family members who wanted ink, a few years ago my Uncle said 'it's really funny, you don't shake as much when you're tattooing' I looked at him and he said 'you shake when you're not tattooing but then when you start you stop shaking'. I had no idea until the past few days that people with parkinsons actually shake when at rest too.
My StepDad often askes me why I'm shaking and Mam tells him I've had the shakes for years. More recently I was trying to recover from surgery and the nurse asked me if I was laright when I went to see her to checka nd change the dressings on my wounds. I said yes, she said 'you don't look it' I looked at her puzzled and she said 'you're shaking' I looked down to my hands and she said 'your mouth and jaw is slightly trembling'. I just said 'oh' and carried on getting ready to get on the bed in the room.
Over the past few years I've developed other problems that I had no idea what was causing them.....I suffer with low blood pressure, or 'postural hypotension' a lot which the doctor thinks is okay to leave but it makes my head really hurt when I stand up and I nearly collapse or fall back down and I get cold. I also get boiling hot, and even feel boiling hot when my temperature is low; I found that out the past few times I've been into hospital for surgery, my temperature is always only 35-36 yet I feel boiling hot and I'm pulling the covers off me, even before surgery and the nurses keep telling me to cover up and get warm before I go to theatre.
My balance is terrible, it was put down to Menieres Disease a few years ago as I'm deaf in one ear already, but I am often dizzy and disorientated a lot in bewteen some pretty massive vertigo attacks. I've felt things very slowly getting worse over the years.
My memory is bad too, I've struggled more and more the past couple of years with my Uni work but it was always put down to ADHD. My Moods are up and down, I've been really low, then the next I'm not too bad and I've become more 'rude' to people. What I mean is that I will snap at people and be sharp when I used to never be like that, it's like I don't think 'oh, I shouldn't say that' and the stuff just gets blurted out.
I struggle with my arms and legs too and I keep asking my GP about it, I try to walk and even job, but no matter how much I do it and for how long I still can't seem to build up any stamina in my legs, they hurt...I don't even get to a 'stitch' stage before I have to stop because my legs just hurt so, so much. I get cramps in my legs and arms too, sometimes just trying to open a car door will give me cramps in my arms and it's like I've pulled muscles, sneezing and coughing can hurt too because it pulls my muscles.
I've been chronically constipated since July too, usually I am constipated most of the time, but then I notice the opposite occasionally, but since July I haven't been able to go to the loo for a number two without some form of laxative; if I don't take a laxative then I tear myself and I've got piles now which will bleed and really cause a lot of pain.
I'd go to my GP but he puts everything down to stress; literally EVERYTHING. I look very young for my age, so often Doctors think I'm at still at school or College and say I'm 'too young' to have anything wrong with me which is rediculous. I'm just not sure what to do now, since my GP is no good.
I also have these twitch things going on too, I have tourrette syndrome, but these twitches are completely different to tics, I can't feel them build up and they occur in my upper abdomen and my head always slightly and quickly jerks to the left..always to the left and has done for a couple of years now.
More recently I've been having this really weird thing happen too and I'm not sure at all where this could fit in with anything but it's like I am trembling or shaking but inside of my body, like on the outside I might not be shaking, but it feels like inside me is shaking. Agagin my GP just puts it down to stress. But then if I believed my GP about stress then I think I'd be dead by now from a heart attack because according to him I'm always stressed..I think I must have been constantly 'stressed' for the past for years none stop if I went by my GP.
I know my own body, and I'm so scared. I've been having these weird things happen with my arms and legs too, when I walk it's weird, it's like I have to put extra effort into taking steps, the only way I can describe it is that it feels like there is a magnet pulling/sticking my feet to the floor, and when I take a step I have to make more effort to get moving, the same with trying to do stuff with my hands too. I feel weak, tired and just as though I'm very slowly fading away and it's upsetting me.
I've tried to ignore most of these things for a few years because I know my GP will just say 'stress' but I know that they are getting worse and worse. Unfortunately I'm not sure my Dad has any of the same issues apart from the shaking and trembling and bad memory and I daren't ask him for fear of upsetting him or making him angry.
Does anyone know if the shaking can come and go, or be bad sometimes and not so bad at other times?