I have read most of the above and found it fascinating.
I was diagnosed seventeen years ago when I was forty-one. It seemed to me, at the time, that my diagnosis was based entirely on the fact that I didn't swing my right arm when walking.
For a few weeks after (and people must have wondered what the heck I was doing) I undertook arm swinging sessions. My classroom was a field walk away from the main school so at break times I would set off purposefully, concentrating on the arms. By the time I had taken about five or six steps my arms were swinging together, not alternately. I must have looked so comical. If someone was with me, I would explain what I was doing, and by the time we reached the staff-room, we were helpless with laughter.
Nowadays, I would say lack of arm-swinging is the least of my problems!
I was interested by the body-stretching comments. I know I am back to a short time of useful normality after THE BIG STRETCH! First thing in the morning I crawl to wherever I want to be. Then it's down with a stalevo 100. Twenty minutes later, tea and toast. Within ten minutes of that, THE BIG STRETCH! It seems to start in my back and shoulders (I am sitting at this time), it pushes my arms up, arches my back, then straighens me out, pulls up my waist and rib cage. After that, I can stand up, stretch tall and then set off walking. It is the very best time of the day for me AND it has just happened SO I must go and do everything I want to do until this good feeling wears off!
Lin
xx