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Janice..... If only our species could have been graced with continuous hindsight PRIOR to individual life-events as one of the senses we are born with! Unfortunately, the symptoms you refer to are SOOO common in virtually all humans, I'd betcha you'd find that at one time or another virtually every individual who's walked God's green earth has had one or another in their life. Over the course of my life I've had several - no, make that MOST symptoms, if not all - and they were so insignificant to me THEN I would never have tied them together and thought they were the first signs of some disease. I'd have been embarrassed to go to my physician with such vague but persistent symptoms, tho I DID have 'em all at one time or another over my lifetime. In fact, I wouldn't have even thought of them as actual "symptoms," 'cause of so many other people I knew (and know) who live with them. I would have been called a hypochondriac and a whiner if in my late teens, and or twenties and thirties I'd commented about such vague symptoms regularly and it would have been suggested that I should "get a life." Now..... today.... after 24 years of living with PD (16 or 17 years since diagnosis), I CAN tie these symptoms into the Parkinson's Disease I ended up with. BUT I keep in mind even if I HAD recognized these vague and annoying symptoms as PD, most others who have the same symptoms at some time in their life do NOT have Parkinson's (tho they MAY have some other disease or condition which has the same or similar symptoms). My point is (gee, sometimes it sure takes me lotta time to GET to a point!) <grin> we are encouraged, even TAUGHT, from our childhood on not to complain about vague aches, pains, and other little things that are common in life and a HUGE number of others live with them as well. It's generally only YEARS after keeping silent that we FINALLY get a diagnosis and begin our journey into hindsight and can then say, "Ah HA! THAT'S when I first realized I might have a REAL medical problem instead of a vague compendium of symptoms." For ME, it's become a stand-off with PD - I'm forced by a slow but continuous degeneration to take each day as it comes, grappling with issues, symptoms, and feelings I'd never even heard of or imagined in past years. Because of that, I find it difficult to dwell on the "what ifs" of the PAST. It's tough enough just dealing with TODAY. Barb Mallut [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: Jennifer Smith <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> Date: Monday, May 10, 1999 3:03 AM Subject: Questions about possible early symptoms >I am reposting this message from earlier. When I posted it before it >was not under a subject heading that described the contents fairly. I >recieved no responses or comments so I assume it kind of got lost in the >shuffle. Either that or no one had anything to say about it. In any >case, I am running it up the flagpole one more time and see if anyone >salutes it: > >Dear Listmembers, >I have been following the posts about vision problems, dry scalp/skin >and moving crumbs with great interest. Many of these things have been >minor problems or observations for me for a number of years. My >question is >this: of the above mentioned, are any of these PD relatated or drug >related? What I am looking for here are some possible warning signs of >PD that were ignored by me as just some wierd thing. As far as vision >goes, I have had problems with tired eyes since my late teens. >Convergence problems and left eye drooping when I got tired, sometimes >double vision. I wore glasses for a while to help with the convergence >problem which was attributed to weak muscles in my eyes. I hated them >and stopped wearing them and just lived with it. I have also had >floaters in my eyes but they come and go. I see things moving that >aren't moving but, there again, ususally when my eyes were tired. Most >of these things along with itchy scalp and dry skin began in my late >teens and early twenties. I just lived with them because there were no >other strange things happening to my body at the time so I just figured >they were just part of my chemistry. I have also remembered that since >those years I have had bouts of depression but also figured that was >just part of life. I only began to worry when I developed numbness and >later a tremor in my right hand which progressed over the course of >about eight months into breathing problems, left foot tremor, stiffness >and rigidity and loss of balance. I was diagnosed in January of this >year (now age 41) with PD when the doctor I was seeing gave me a >dose of Sinemet and breathing, tremors and rigidity returned to normal >and loss of balance improved dramatically. > >Could it be that some of these things were beginning symptoms? Call me >crazy (it wouldn't be the first time) but would like to hear comments on > >this. Thanks in advance for any replies. >Jennifer Smith > > > >-- >Ars Longa - Vita Brevis >Art is Long - Life is short >:(:) ) >