I had my niece visiting from Australia the other day and she came round with her Mum for a catchup with myself, my husband and my daughter and her girls. I was in the kitchen and she came in for a chat. She made a comment – which by the way I appreciate – that I looked like I was doing well and that I wasn’t showing any signs of ‘the shakes’.
My husband and I often talk about peoples’ perception of what Parkies is. For many people, ‘the shakes’ is the only symptom they identify with. Or perhaps they know about shuffling gait. But that is usually about where their knowledge stops.
I was reading a post on a Facebook Page this morning and it talked about Dystonia. This can be when a toe – and maybe a finger – will sudden stiffen and point straight up. Very painful and I am glad to say I have only had one or two incidences of this. I have had cramp in the fingers of my left hand a couple of times recently, but hopefully that is not going to continue.
Then there is swallowing issues and choking just on saliva. That is a frequent issue for me and also choking if my throat gets too dry, so I have to have a water bottle nearby at all times. Swallowing issues can be quite marked and challenging to deal with, but a good Speech Language Therapist can give exercises to help strengthen the muscles in your throat.
There are issues with shuffling gait as well, but there are exercises that you can do to help ward this off – at least for a while.
The difficult thing is, when something new comes up in the way of symptoms, that it is hard to know if it is a Parkies thing or whether it is some new ailment that has seemingly popped up out of nowhere. It is always a good idea to check with your GP. Below, I have put a useful link to some of the things that can happen for those of us with Parkinson’s. Perhaps a good link to share with others.
https://www.parkinson.org/understanding-parkinsons/10-early-signs
My journey with Parkinsons 