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Ron, There are different diseases which cause "shaking" or "tremors". I am not an expert on that. I just know that my mother, my grandmother, and my aunt all had "tremors" or "shaking". They did not take medication for the symptoms. If they had PD it was never diagnosed by a DR. or the DR. didn't think it was a problem for them. Mother died at age 80 for a blocked artery in the neck. My grandmother died at age 63 from a stroke. My aunt died at age 80 from heart problems. I went to a neurologist DR and asked him if I might have early symptoms of PD (I am beginning to shake some at age 64). He told me definitely I did not. (I wondered if he was expert enough to say that) But if you have early PD symptoms then one thing I would concentrate on would be exercise. Don't ever give that up. I have read that many times on this List Serve. Some forms of PD apparently is progressive in symptoms but if you have good physical exercise habits then "my guess" is that you can prolong your lifestyle even with the symptoms. Many of the List Serve participants obviously "don't give in" to PD symptoms . My brother has PD. Below is a little history of his condition. The one thing he is not getting now is physical exercise. This is eventually going to make him into an invalid at the nursing home. Apparently, this is what the nursing homes do. They care for the patient's basic needs but do not attempt to "maintain" or "rehabilitate" patients. As long as the patients cause little "maintenance" they will make money while the patient lies there. That is so sad. My brother has PD and was formerly diagnosed by several DR's. He started out shuffling his feet - or walking funny in '94. His right hand began to shake and he couldn't hold a glass of water in his right hand without spilling it. Both progressively got worse. He began to have a type of "dementia". He began to fall and had a severe fall about 1998-9 and at that time he was formerly diagnosed as having PD - his walking developed a "freezing" where the legs would not go. His talking began to decrease in volume until about '99 he was at a whisper and you could barely hear him. He had 1 or two strokes from '96 to '99 but they left no permanent damage (not sure this was accurately diagnosed). He finally began to need help to walk. His head was shaking considerable when I saw him in '99 (I am in Georgia and he is in Texas). He had to stay home...and after his "stroke" he sat at home with a sitter. His handwriting went from a very good style of writing to writing very tiny letters to nothing. His weight changed from 170 lbs to 117 lbs (due to the PD) during 1999-2002. He finally was admitted to a nursing home for assistance when he developed aspiration pneumonia and had to have a feeding tube placed in his stomach. (His ability to eat had been affected from 1999 as he would gorge his mouthful but couldn't swallow. PD had affected his neck muscles. ) Now he is in a nursing home and is going down hill. He is not getting hardly any exercise...probably just lying there. He will get stiffer and stiffer as the PD takes effect. He does not talk and cannot write. He appears to understand and many times could shake his head "yes" or "no". He likes to read but his glasses needs changing. So I don't know how much he can read. One time I gave him a test (yes or no) on what he was reading and it appeared he did understand what he was reading. One phenomial (sp?) think about my brother. In 1999 even though he could not walk without assistance we could take him outside - prop him up (someone behind him to catch him) and began throwing the baseball to him or the football. He would then stand up by himself, catch the ball, throw it back harder than what you threw to him. As a matter of fact he would throw it so hard it hurt your hands. He would still be there throwing if you didn't finally quit. He would stand there without assistance - by himself- and throw and catch the ball. When you quit then he would need assistance to stand up. When I left him he was throwing the volley ball back and forth to the nurses....if they would do it with him. Physical therapy was out of the question with the nursing home. I am appealing that right now with them. We have some wonderful nurses at the nursing homes but management keeps "bare staff" on duty so that the staff is overworked and the patients get little attention outside of the bare essentials. SAD. Larry Wilson ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ron McKay" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 11:14 PM Subject: I Don't Know If I Should Be Here > About a year ago numerous family friends told me they were seeing me shake a lot, and suggested that I tell my Doctor. Up until then I believe I only shook when I got nervous, or stressed, and would try hard to cover it with more intense concentration. The doctor told me I had ratcheting in my joints, and with the tremors, he believed I had PD. I have since caught myself in the tremors, a few times, but have gone through a relatively normal year since his diagnosis. I have studied the symptoms, and can remember bouts of the symptoms over the past twenty years. This month, I have noticed that the strength in my right arm is going, and it often pains to lift it above my belt line. The pain shows up in my hand, arm, shoulder, and neck on the right side. I also have pain in my lower back, and can not bend over to pick anything up, and find it harder and harder to put my shoes and socks on, or cut my toe nails, or even use toilet paper. I am now 61, and my head still wants to declare it old age. The day after the doctor diagnosed the PD my wife asked me to sign a release that would allow her and the children to put me in a nursing home, if they found they did not want to deal with it. I have therefore told them I am doing fine, and do not talk to them about it. I have told the doctor that I do not want any medication, or other treatment, until I feel so debilitated that I would feel I would need them. My question is, "Are there others that have been diagnosed with PD, who doubt that they really have it, and are able to go for years, without it getting in the way of them doing their daily chores?" I work full time as an administrator, and few people around me know of the diagnosis. It is my goal to slip through the next five years to retirement, without the PD making any difference. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn