Just half a tablet – feels great!

My normal attitude is a glass half full one and recently it has been tested across many fronts. Regarding my health, I am writing this at a good point and not wishing it to end (and praying it doesn’t) and I wanted to share the recent impact of half a tablet with those who are bored/kind enough to read my blog on PD, conscious that I may not be as in the moment if I leave it a while.

For at least a couple of months, I have noticed a real degradation in my symptoms – I even did an excel covering the increase in my symptoms and people noticed, specifically – shuffling which I experienced for the firs time, balance issues, freezing, weakness and stiffness of my right hand side. I think it is fair to say that I was far more subdued and bordering on the depressed (sorry to all those around me) which I put down to a combination of PD and other factors.

It got so bad that at a meeting I was at with my sister and mother I effectively couldn’t walk unaided and froze for a long time.

Fortunately I had my half yearly check in with the Neurologist. We spoke about the symptoms increasing a month ago by email and agreed to look at it when we met. His suggestion was to increase the one of my drugs, Sinamet ,by 50% – an extra half a tablet four times a day – (and keep up all the other medciation/activities/exercise and to ensure I work harder to avoid stress etc).

The effect has been immediate – I guess like a sudden release of Dopamine :-).

I won’t rest on my laurels but I feel completely revolutionized. Sure, it is not a miracle cure – PD is still bothering me massively (I woke up before 3am as usual and am still very rigid) but my movement is completely changed as is my balance, my demeanor and my state of mind. I am not a medical professional but I can feel the instant impact and although I 100% don’t believe it is psychosomatic, to be honest I am not fussed if it is.

Medicine has different effects on different people, but for me it felt miraculous and my physio noticed the difference immediately.

Whilst it is a scary reminder of the dark side of seeing the damage PD can do and the unbelievable dependence on what is effectively half a tablet, I must be incredibly grateful for the moment and to G-d and the fact I am blessed to live at a time where there is at least the medicine to mask and cope with the effects of PD. I can also offer my apologies to those around me, and hope this makes me more bareable.

It is also a reminder to those who share the same condition of the need to check in with your symptoms and with health professionals so that you can be on top of it.

PD has not gone away, life outside PD is more than complex, and I had a bit of a taste of the future as the PD tries to once again overtake the meds which it will surely do, BUT I am rebooted and ready for the next journey in the fight and once again in awe of those who dedicate themselves to the healthcare and pharmaceutical profession – it truly helps!