I've been recently ( last October ) been diagnosed with early onset Parkinsons. Symptoms are mainly general stiffness - which has been responding very well to medication, and tremor which seems limited to my left hand ( of course I'm left handed LOL ).
My main concerns are:
- It getting progressively worse, I saw an old fella the other day who had bad tremor / spasm...which was sobering.
- Employment prospects - I'm freelance and tend to work on jobs that last around 6 months max. Generally for each job I need to attend an interview ( most commonly they'll be new employers each time ). Very concerned that I'll just be bypassed for the job ( and of course not know the reason why ), if my hand starts shaking.
I recently attended an industry lunch do with my peers, and really felt the pressure not to noticably shake, which makes it worse!!!
I find the tremor gets worse when under stress - which could be a job interview! Or trying to stop it shaking which makes it worse....
- I'm definitely interested in BDS (?) to reduce the visible tremour - any feedback would be good.
- I'd be interested what my options are regarding registering as disabled ( is that right? ) to qualify for benifits for when the time comes I can no longer work......
Etc. etc. etc.........questions about a whole host of unknowns!!!
Thanks for lending an ear ( or should that be 'eye' ?). More to come
Welcome aboard the roller coaster. IT consultant perhaps? My typing, which used to be oh so fluent, is now oh so clumsy!
I'm guessing you're not on meds yet, but there aren't many symptoms that can't ultimately be masked by a cocktail of chemical substances, so you should discuss with your neuro/medical team.
We were diagnosed same month (Oct 28th, 6:35pm for me) - took some getting my head round, but got there eventually; really hope you can do the same.
I am on meds - pramiwhatchamacallit - some round ones as well! I'm told the meds wont mask the tremour which is one of my primeary concerns re: getting jobs.
As a ANYFORMOFMOTORSPORT fan your screen name is a great coice, your medication could actually be making the tremor worse, you may be on too high a dosage, see your PD Consultant as its very important to optimise your intake to your particular needs,a couple of weeks ago I was crippled by parkys old pal Dyskinesia, oh what fun it was as I was shaken by the most violent, well on the Richter scale it would be 22, and that scale only goes up to 10, and the cause was a very very overdose of Levadopa/Carbidopa,, delivered by the Duodopa device,a quick adjustment and all was well. I also become badly affected if under any form of pressure and that is any form of pressure good ( £170.000.000 on the Euro millions) or bad (being driven anywhere by my wife),,dont mention that, but it is the original white knuckle ride,she was taught at the COLIN McRAE SCHOOL OF INCONSIDERATE MOTORISTS, I have managed over the years to use distraction as a way of managing this distressing symptom, one of many BLACKHEART uses against me, otherwise maintaining vigilance and preparation is essential, this is not always possible of course. As to what benefits you may be entitled to our wonderful caring condems government have messed around with the system so much I cant even guess the benefits you may be entitled to if you have a fully up tp date NI card, it will depend entirely on how badly disabled you are ironicly you will need to be assessed on this by either your Doc or a independant govt appointed, and this will create, the Perfect Storm, or exactly the conditions reqd to fire up severe tremor sad I know but I have a good friend who is very badly effected by PD yet was only awarded the lowest level of assistance, he is fighting for the highest level and knowing B he will prevail,, the highest level, entitles you to the blue badge which is handy if you want to park in the middle of the HUMBER BRIDGE you get a great view, but when my beloved tried it there were so many nasty drivers on the road we had to bring our pic nic to a early end, only joking DAYTONA, ?
I know this post at first read probably seems down beat,2nd,3rd and 4th read also, if you would like to e mail me for more info, my address is avaiable
