"Oh No!"

One of the reasons for creating this blog is to track the progress of my Parkinson's Disease (PD) and its effect on me both physically and otherwise. I hope that this will help others with Young Onset PD (YOPD) to have some idea as what is ahead and to let them know they are not alone in what they are going through. I caution, however, that PD and YOPD is an individual disease. While the general symptoms are the same, the onset, order of symptoms, location of symptoms and severity can vary greatly.

The title of this particular post pertains to the character I am going to use to track my PD as I go along with this blog. Some may remember "Mr. Bill" and his nemesis "Sluggo" (in my use case here, he will be "YOPD") from Saturday Night Live in the 1970's. Mr. Bill often quoted this just before Sluggo did something terrible to him. Mr. Bill will be my stand-in as I track my physical and mental progression with PD. I know the graphics are terrible, but Mr. Bill was not exactly Rodin's "The Thinker".

In February of this year, I developed a "twitch" in my left thumb. It builds up to a very quick pace (about 4 beats per second) in a short period of time. I can stop it with movement of my thumb but at rest, it will build up again to the same pace. I would also stop it from time-to-time by grabbing the right sleeve of my shirt especially when it shook in public.

By July, the "twitching" became more prevalent in my thumb and now my left lower leg (calf muscle) started to get in the act. This was manifested as more of a shake than a "twitch". Simply by standing on my leg would stop the motion, but when at rest, it would shake at a rate similar to my thumb. Both would typically move at the same time starting with the thumb movement.

Around October, the intensity and amount of movement during the day had increased quite a bit. As in the earlier cases, stressful situations tended to make the movement worse. During an EEG test at a hospital in Texas, the nurse turned on a strobe light toward the end of the test which startled me out of my near sleep state. My thumb and leg twitched violently for several minutes and I had a difficult time stopping them until the test was complete. In addition, I noticed that my lower left forearm now shook quite a bit as well. The frequency was not as fast as my thumb or leg, but it was rhythmic in nature. While I was the only person to notice the tremors earlier in the year, others now were beginning to notice the movement on my left side.

As this blog goes forward, I will continue to update my condition and any drugs taken to combat the symptoms (I am currently not on any medications). I welcome any comments or questions regarding my YOPD.