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Sometimes life can really suck
May. 13th, 2005 02:55 pmThe last three weeks have been a real bitch.
Three weeks ago I caught a cold. For most people colds aren’t a big thing. For me, they knock me on my ass for a couple of days, then I spend a few weeks coughing my lungs out and going through Kleenex at an enormous rate. Sometimes I’m exceptionally lucky and it turns into a sinus infection and I get to add a course of antibiotics to the mix and the lovely intestinal disruption that ensues.
So I’m on antibiotics and I pick up an opportunistic virus. And my arms, head, and torso start shaking like I have Parkinsons.
You wanna talk scary?
I discovered this when I went back to work two weeks ago Wednesday. I’m sitting at my desk, staring at the screen at a program I’m working on, and I noticed that I was shaking. I figured it was probably low blood sugar and that I needed to take my lunch break, so off I go. Eat a nice moderate meal, and nothing happens with the shakes. In fact, the shakes get worse.
I had an appointment a few days later to see a GP MD for the sinus infection. I showed her my shakes, she did a number of evaluations to see how symmetrical the problem was, and she was kind of concerned, so she referred me to the neurologists and gave me stuff for the sinus infection.
Fortunately, with the meds, the sinus infection and my lungs began clearing up immediately. Unfortunately my tremors got worse.
I pretty much lost it that evening, fortunately I had a friend whom I could count on to go out with me and just listen. She helped me pull it back together, besides, there was nothing to do but to wait until I could get in to the neurologist.
I did some research on tremors and Parkinsons and such and was pretty convinced that my symptoms weren’t related. I do not engage in self-diagnosis, it was just for information gathering. I was extremely lucky and I was able to get in and see a neurologist less than 10 days from making the call.
The symptoms got worse, going from mild shaking part of the time to moderate, sometimes heavy, shaking almost all the time.
About my only solace was that my hand writing and voice were unaffected and that the motions were symmetrical.
I spoke with Russ a few times and this was a pretty major talking point. I did a self-test of drinking no water to see if diabetes was a possibility: I drink a lot of water daily, and one symptom of diabetes is very strong thirst. I went 4 hours without water, so no problem there. Parkinsons apparently is not a symmetrical disease, plus my voice and writing were unaffected, so that was mostly ruled out. But there were a billion more things that it could be and I wouldn’t know where to begin looking for those.
Russ suggested that I eliminate caffeine to see if there’s a change, so I went 4 days without caffeine. No diff. Russet’s schedule had last week as her last work period before she returns in mid-June from Our Activities in Ohio. She had a couple of things to do this week but cancelled most of them and came down Sunday night to spend time with me and accompany me to the neurologist.
The neurologist was a pretty good guy. The nurse did the standard BP/pulse stuff, all was normal. In fact, my pulse was in the mid 60’s, pretty remarkable for a guy who is shaking like a leaf. The appointment went very well, every test/motion he put me through I did with flying colors, lots of walking on your toes/heels, heel to toe, closing your eyes and touching the tip of your nose from full arm extension, etc. There was no binding or restriction in my arm movement, apparently a strong indication of the dreaded Parkinsons.
So his preliminary diagnosis was Essential Tremors. It’s a generic, catch-all, saying “you’ve got the shakes and we don’t know why.” 50% chance if you have a family history of ET that you’ll get it, no one in my family has it. There may be a couple of genetic markers related, but it’s not a positive identifier. So if by process of elimination we don’t know what’s wrong with you, it’s ET. There’s some meds that can be used, but I’m very concerned that, by definition, such meds would affect your central nervous system, and if it made me less sharp, could I continue working with computers?
On a side note, I believe I have previously mentioned my diagnosis as having Retinal Migraines. The doctor is a little concerned about that, though he thinks it is unrelated to my ET. He sets me up to have three MRIs: brain, neck, and vascular brain/neck and tells me he wants to hold off medicating until after the MRIs. Fine by me!
Amazingly, they were able to schedule the MRIs for a week later! It should be an experience, I’ve never had one before. I had a CT Scan once, I just closed my eyes and went to sleep. This time will be different: each scan takes an hour. So that’ll be happening Wednesday AM.
Russet was a big comfort while she was here. She left Wednesday night so that she could make a design review meeting Thursday (they’re redesigning the top of her telescope, the part that holds the secondary mirror) and a doctor appt Friday. Then she’s resting for a couple of days and heading off to Ohio. The only difference in my ET from when she arrived to when she left was that it seemed to mostly leave my right arm and focus on my left.
Thursday I went to my naturopath, Andria. I’ve known her for years and she’s helped me fight some nasty stuff. She was also my masseuse and is a really cute lady, so that’s bonus. She did a bunch of acupuncture on me along with some facial release (don’t ask me to explain it!) and gave me some pills and a liquid mineral concentrate. I wasn’t any better when I left, though my hip wasn’t hurting as much (it’s been really bothersome during this ordeal) and I went back to work. Left work, did some errands (got my wedding announcement printed!), got home, had dinner, watched TV, played City of Heroes for an hour or so, went to bed. Still trembling.
Woke up this morning to my first alarm. I wasn’t trembling, but I don’t tremble in my sleep according to Russ, I just wanted to relax before I started my day and started shaking all over again. Back was a little twitchy, but my arms were pretty good. Finished the morning routine, went to work – NO TWITCHING. I feel like my back wants to twitch, sort of in anticipation of what’s been going on for almost three weeks. So this is now over 8 hours with only one bout of moderate twitching and very little mild.
I AM HAPPY!
I’m seeing my chiropractor in a couple hours as my back is really wracked up from this, but things definitely are better. I have to credit Andria with the turn-around. It was assumed that the virus would run its course in another couple weeks, but when a virus finally goes away, it usually doesn’t do a 180 overnight.
Anyway, as I said, I AM HAPPY! Needless to say I’m going to continue taking what she gave me for another week then talk to her again, and I’m going to go through with the MRI. Maybe they’ll actually find some evidence that I have a brain, contrary to what some friends might think.
Three weeks ago I caught a cold. For most people colds aren’t a big thing. For me, they knock me on my ass for a couple of days, then I spend a few weeks coughing my lungs out and going through Kleenex at an enormous rate. Sometimes I’m exceptionally lucky and it turns into a sinus infection and I get to add a course of antibiotics to the mix and the lovely intestinal disruption that ensues.
So I’m on antibiotics and I pick up an opportunistic virus. And my arms, head, and torso start shaking like I have Parkinsons.
You wanna talk scary?
I discovered this when I went back to work two weeks ago Wednesday. I’m sitting at my desk, staring at the screen at a program I’m working on, and I noticed that I was shaking. I figured it was probably low blood sugar and that I needed to take my lunch break, so off I go. Eat a nice moderate meal, and nothing happens with the shakes. In fact, the shakes get worse.
I had an appointment a few days later to see a GP MD for the sinus infection. I showed her my shakes, she did a number of evaluations to see how symmetrical the problem was, and she was kind of concerned, so she referred me to the neurologists and gave me stuff for the sinus infection.
Fortunately, with the meds, the sinus infection and my lungs began clearing up immediately. Unfortunately my tremors got worse.
I pretty much lost it that evening, fortunately I had a friend whom I could count on to go out with me and just listen. She helped me pull it back together, besides, there was nothing to do but to wait until I could get in to the neurologist.
I did some research on tremors and Parkinsons and such and was pretty convinced that my symptoms weren’t related. I do not engage in self-diagnosis, it was just for information gathering. I was extremely lucky and I was able to get in and see a neurologist less than 10 days from making the call.
The symptoms got worse, going from mild shaking part of the time to moderate, sometimes heavy, shaking almost all the time.
About my only solace was that my hand writing and voice were unaffected and that the motions were symmetrical.
I spoke with Russ a few times and this was a pretty major talking point. I did a self-test of drinking no water to see if diabetes was a possibility: I drink a lot of water daily, and one symptom of diabetes is very strong thirst. I went 4 hours without water, so no problem there. Parkinsons apparently is not a symmetrical disease, plus my voice and writing were unaffected, so that was mostly ruled out. But there were a billion more things that it could be and I wouldn’t know where to begin looking for those.
Russ suggested that I eliminate caffeine to see if there’s a change, so I went 4 days without caffeine. No diff. Russet’s schedule had last week as her last work period before she returns in mid-June from Our Activities in Ohio. She had a couple of things to do this week but cancelled most of them and came down Sunday night to spend time with me and accompany me to the neurologist.
The neurologist was a pretty good guy. The nurse did the standard BP/pulse stuff, all was normal. In fact, my pulse was in the mid 60’s, pretty remarkable for a guy who is shaking like a leaf. The appointment went very well, every test/motion he put me through I did with flying colors, lots of walking on your toes/heels, heel to toe, closing your eyes and touching the tip of your nose from full arm extension, etc. There was no binding or restriction in my arm movement, apparently a strong indication of the dreaded Parkinsons.
So his preliminary diagnosis was Essential Tremors. It’s a generic, catch-all, saying “you’ve got the shakes and we don’t know why.” 50% chance if you have a family history of ET that you’ll get it, no one in my family has it. There may be a couple of genetic markers related, but it’s not a positive identifier. So if by process of elimination we don’t know what’s wrong with you, it’s ET. There’s some meds that can be used, but I’m very concerned that, by definition, such meds would affect your central nervous system, and if it made me less sharp, could I continue working with computers?
On a side note, I believe I have previously mentioned my diagnosis as having Retinal Migraines. The doctor is a little concerned about that, though he thinks it is unrelated to my ET. He sets me up to have three MRIs: brain, neck, and vascular brain/neck and tells me he wants to hold off medicating until after the MRIs. Fine by me!
Amazingly, they were able to schedule the MRIs for a week later! It should be an experience, I’ve never had one before. I had a CT Scan once, I just closed my eyes and went to sleep. This time will be different: each scan takes an hour. So that’ll be happening Wednesday AM.
Russet was a big comfort while she was here. She left Wednesday night so that she could make a design review meeting Thursday (they’re redesigning the top of her telescope, the part that holds the secondary mirror) and a doctor appt Friday. Then she’s resting for a couple of days and heading off to Ohio. The only difference in my ET from when she arrived to when she left was that it seemed to mostly leave my right arm and focus on my left.
Thursday I went to my naturopath, Andria. I’ve known her for years and she’s helped me fight some nasty stuff. She was also my masseuse and is a really cute lady, so that’s bonus. She did a bunch of acupuncture on me along with some facial release (don’t ask me to explain it!) and gave me some pills and a liquid mineral concentrate. I wasn’t any better when I left, though my hip wasn’t hurting as much (it’s been really bothersome during this ordeal) and I went back to work. Left work, did some errands (got my wedding announcement printed!), got home, had dinner, watched TV, played City of Heroes for an hour or so, went to bed. Still trembling.
Woke up this morning to my first alarm. I wasn’t trembling, but I don’t tremble in my sleep according to Russ, I just wanted to relax before I started my day and started shaking all over again. Back was a little twitchy, but my arms were pretty good. Finished the morning routine, went to work – NO TWITCHING. I feel like my back wants to twitch, sort of in anticipation of what’s been going on for almost three weeks. So this is now over 8 hours with only one bout of moderate twitching and very little mild.
I AM HAPPY!
I’m seeing my chiropractor in a couple hours as my back is really wracked up from this, but things definitely are better. I have to credit Andria with the turn-around. It was assumed that the virus would run its course in another couple weeks, but when a virus finally goes away, it usually doesn’t do a 180 overnight.
Anyway, as I said, I AM HAPPY! Needless to say I’m going to continue taking what she gave me for another week then talk to her again, and I’m going to go through with the MRI. Maybe they’ll actually find some evidence that I have a brain, contrary to what some friends might think.
