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When I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in August 2019, a doctor told me that Sinemet (Levodopa/Carbidopa), the starting drug of choice, often completes treatment within 5 years and that for 50% of people , it stops acting after 5 years. .

As my fifth birthday approached, I felt like I was part of the “lucky” 50% who are stable on Sinemet. My tremors in my left hand seemed to have disappeared and my REM The behavioral problems virtually disappeared after adding a nighttime dose of melatonin.

Then my wife pointed out to me that a few fingers on my left hand were tapping, at first just a little, then more and more often. She also noticed that my left hand was often clenched into a fist when I slept and she even tried to untie it, but it curled up again. Then I realized that almost all the time my fingers were curled up, making my hand look like a claw. I could focus and stop it, but as soon as I stopped concentrating on uncurling my fingers, they reverted to their claw shape.

Since then, I have the impression that Parkinson’s disease is making its way into me. In no particular order, I developed these new symptoms:

1. I’m still exhausted, I need way more sleep than my pre-Parkinson’s 7 hours.
2. My usually healthy appetite has disappeared and often I just don’t feel like eating.
3. When I’m just sitting, my left foot starts tapping.
4. My voice quality fluctuates between my normal voice (which is quite high pitched) and a raspy vocal quality.
5. My processing speed seems much slower, which frustrates my wife who is waiting for responses or comments and I am slow to respond.
6. Multitasking has become very difficult. I can handle one stream of information like television, but not another like my wife’s questions. I say “what?” a lot for her.
7. Even though I seem to speak in a fairly loud voice, my wife tells me that I mumble and am hard to hear.

Stresseven a small amount of stress makes my body shake and exacerbates my other symptoms. And my life recently has had its share of stress which has further exacerbated my symptoms. The cold makes the situation even worse. Often I feel a combination of anxiety And depression that I can’t shake. My neurologist added in a antidepressant which I hope will manifest soon and help reduce my stress and perhaps reduce some of my symptoms.

Compared to many people I know with Parkinson’s, I should consider myself lucky. I guess I’m not as lucky as I hoped. As a scientist, I am still monitoring the progression of my Parkinson’s disease and am deeply saddened by the onslaught of symptoms. To others, I feel like I have a minor form of Parkinson’s disease, because few of my symptoms are visible outwardly. But my insides are struggling and I’m not very happy about it. I’ll talk to my neurologist when I see her later this month and hope she has some ideas about my condition.