During the initial assessment by the Neurologist, he recorded the following symptoms: a small steppage gait with a mild stooped posture, some rigidity in both upper limbs with mild freezing in the lower left limb.
He also recorded mild hypomimia but no other cranial nerve abnormalities, dysphonia and micrographia all of which are classic symptoms of Parkinsonism apparently.
I’ll explain what these terms all mean shortly.
On reflection, I think many of the symptoms have been there for a couple of years and have got slightly worse – not massively or too worryingly but definitely different.
The freezing feels as if my foot is stuck the floor and does not want to move which caused me to fall over a couple of times in the last 3 months or so. The stiffness in my legs is behind my gait problems, my wife says I’m dragging my feet and the dysphonia means I am speaking very quietly, much more so than usual. And driving her around the bend!
I first noticed the deterioration in my handwriting about a year ago – I can barely even read my own writing nowadays, it’s become so small and some letters seem very difficult to write, this is why the Consultant had me doing some writing; micrographia is another classic symptom of Parkinson’s Disease.
I intend to log any changes in my condition on this blog, so that i remember and I can tell my doctor whenever I see either my Consultant or GP.
The scan scheduled for 6.00 pm yesterday went very well and the staff at my local hospital, Leighton Hospital in Crewe, are very efficient. Everything was fully explained and was exactly on time.
The scan which involved lying on a bed with my head in a cradle and a fairly close ‘mask’ being placed over my face took about 15 minutes overall and apart from the noise of the machine working was not unpleasant, nor particularly claustrophobic.
Lying very still for 15 minutes is not that difficult – only the itch on my nose and in my ear, as expected which obviously I couldn’t scratch and them playing Smooth Radio 🙁 in the earphones marred the whole experience.