There are plenty of places to look for a symptoms list of Parkinson’s Disease. I suggest the following websites for a better understanding of symptoms:
The first thing I’m going to share with you about My Parkinsonism is my symptoms. I began experiencing pain and extreme fatigue (sleeping 20+ hours a day for weeks on end and never feeling rested) In 2000. I also experienced on and off visual disturbances, mood disruptions (anxiety, obsessions, depression, compulsions, anger), and constipation since that time. I sought medical treatment from a military physician who referred me to a rheumatologist, and the end result was a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, even though he told me point blank he did not want to give me that diagnosis. He said he didn’t want to “pigeonhole” me.
At no point did anyone ever put these symptoms together and look at them (or me) in light of Parkinsonism. Not until 2020. For 20 years, I endured these symptoms and others while I sought treatment, but no treatment was successful. Sure, I was prescribed medications to treat one symptom or another, but there was never a whole body review; and at no time did I ever feel that the doctors were hearing me when I said, “there is something going on with me systemically”. Eventually, the symptoms all returned, and new symptoms appeared.
My current symptoms are sleep disturbance, visual disruption, memory loss, dry eyes, skin lesions, executive function decline, apathy, voice changes, anxiety, constipation, fatigue, olfactory decline, drooling, incontinence, low libido, dystonia, rigidity, internal tremor, and bradykinesia.
Symptoms I have experienced in the past that have been under control with Sinemet are falling, balance & coordination issues, confusion, micrographia, rapid heart rate, shuffling gait, orthostatic hypotension, visual hallucination, pain, choking/difficulty swallowing, dizziness, and stooped posture.
Read all the symptoms in the above paragraphs and decide if you would have gone to the doctor to seek medical treatment. Determine whether you would have pursued answers and second opinions even when you were told you had Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Functional Neurological Disorder, Seizures, Bi-Polar Disorder, and Migraines (and additional diagnosis) for years.
Similarly, tell me if you could continue to see the same doctor and go to the same hospital system where you were continuously told you have migraines and there is “nothing” more anyone can do for you. Imagine feeling this way for almost 5 years and declining to the point you are confined to a chair.
I don’t know if it is because I’m a female, or if it was because I had some “junk” diagnosis or a mental illness in my records; maybe it was the fact that I wouldn’t stay away or “accept” that “nothing” was wrong. I don’t know. What I do know is that those two paragraphs contain way too many symptoms for a 42-year-old woman and far too many for an active and social woman of any age.
Again, I am sharing this information because I know there is another woman out there who may be younger than me, another woman who is struggling because she knows there is something going on and is being told that everything is normal on the bloodwork. Everything is normal on the scans, the MRI, the x-ray, etc. That being confused and constipated and forgetting words and falling, that having a rapid heart rate and low blood pressure are all unrelated. If you are that woman, hear me say, “your health is important. You are a whole person, worthy of being treated as such. I know this is hard. I know medical personnel can gaslight you and make you feel crazy and downright stupid. Please don’t give up. Please keep fighting. You deserve a quality of life.”
Even now, with a Movement Disorder Specialist, I am sometimes given a short “canned” answer without anyone digging deeper for more information. Even though I have a diagnosis, I still have to be the strongest advocate I have, because I am all I have. For those who know me, don’t get me wrong, Rich is an amazing advocate and there are times that he must advocate for me, but unless I share every symptom with him, he wouldn’t know. Unless I speak with him about the symptoms and tell him why they are important, he doesn’t really know how much advocating he needs to do.
I’ve been trying to post this for three days now, so I’m going to end here. My ability to write comes and goes, and since I’m sleep-deprived and working on 4 hours today, it is definitely gone. I hope this post has helped someone. I hope it finds its way to a person desperately searching for answers like I was in September of 2020. To that person, I say, “Do NOT give up. The answer is coming!”
Momma Rich's 