My nine-year battle with Parkinson’s

• Ike Adams/ Points East

• December 16, 2016

As regular, long-time readers of this column already know, I’ve had Parkinson’s Disease for more than seven years now. Actually it’s probably more like nine years because I had the symptoms for about two years before finally accepting the diagnosis. This column is simply to update readers on how I’m doing because hardly a day goes by that I don’t get a polite inquiry.

Loretta had been telling me, since sometime in 2008, that she thought I might have Parkinson’s because we knew a couple of people who “suffered” from the disease and she thought I exhibited some the same peculiar physical symptoms as our acquaintances. She had also read a couple of magazine articles on the subject and then found some information on the internet to support her theory. 

I fought my wife’s diagnosis for well over a year because, in my opinion, my symptoms did not resemble those of the folks who had positive diagnosis and I rarely believe anything that comes off the internet. If you want to prove that earth is square you can, if you search hard enough, find a website to support that theory.

My biggest problem, initially, was a lack of balance. I simply had problems walking or even standing erect without something to lean on. I wore the tips off a couple of walking canes and my hands shook so badly I had trouble signing my name. 

My primary care doctor finally talked me into seeing a neurologist. Dr. Bellanger suspected that I might have Parkinson’s but he also knew that I was in deep denial. I later found out that it is fairly common for people with Parkinson’s to go to great lengths to prove that they have something else. I was already being treated for diabetes, for example, and spent many hours trying to link my symptoms to that disease even though metformin had my sugar levels under pretty good control.

Anyway, the neurologist told me he wasn’t sure what I had but he didn’t think it was Parkinson’s. That was exactly what I wanted to hear. He also told me there was a surefire way to find out and that was to try a medication called senimet. He also said that if I had noticeable improvements in mobility and the tremors lessened, it meant the medicine was working and that it only worked on Parkinson’s Disease by replacing certain chemicals the brain could no longer produce. He said it might take 30 days to start working and scheduled another appointment six weeks down the road.

So I wobbled out of his office on my walker and literally smirked at Loretta. That was in early December of 2010. On Christmas Day, I was still trembling so badly that I couldn’t open presents without assistance and I still needed a cane or the walker to get around.

But by New Year’s Day, I no longer needed a walking device and I discovered that I could write a column in about two hours, a feat that had previously taken the better part of two days because I couldn’t hold my hands still enough to type before the medicine started working. 

Since that time, I’ve had two strokes that have had the residual effect of making my left hand useless for typing and now I only use the thumb and middle finger of my right hand for that effort but I’m back up to about 45 words per minute on a typing test. And that’s probably a good thing because it makes me think before I write something. Unfortunately, it does not make me think before I speak and Loretta frequently tells me I could use some help in that regard.

I am one of the very lucky ones when it comes to Parkinson’s. I believe I have mentioned here before that the doctors tell me I could be a poster boy for the medication. I’ve had better results than more than 95 percent of patients using senimet to treat the disease.

I’ve also run out a couple of times for a couple of days and discovered, the hard way, just how dependent I am on what has proven to me to be a life-changing miracle drug. I try to keep a minimum of a 30-day supply on hand at all times.

As I’ve said several times before, there’s no “suffering” associated with my personal experience with Mr. Parkinson but there is a lot of aggravation and annoyance and I suspect that just about everybody has their fair share of those.

http://www.richmondregister.com/opinion/my-nine-year-battle-with-parkinson-s/article_6592054e-c3ae-11e6-85e3-3f4e323d4c6c.html