I would have sudden, uncontrolled jerks. Once my jaw jerked so hard I broke a filling in a tooth. Also trouble playing fast music evenly. "Startles" (suddenly jerking awake) when I got sleepy. Tremors after a burst of adrenaline. Leaning forward when I walk. Sleeplessness or unwillingness to get to bed. My face would get stuck in an expression (when laughing).
@A MyParkinsonsTeam Member - hang in there! I can't smell either, but at least I'm not a fussy eater! (Slow, yes, fussy, no) As far as I have experienced, physical & occupational therapy can help a lot with gait & postural problems. I have also found that if I just concentrate on moving correctly, that helps, too. Posture - what has helped me has been (in order of what idea occurred to me first): 1) Sky hook - I pretend that there is a big hook just above the top of my head that lifts it up! 2) Stick out the tits & try to make the shoulder blades down & close together in back (like the character of Sarah MacKenzie on JAG - beautifully played by Catherine Bell). 3) Lead with my knees when taking a step & the most helpful was the "curve of life" - the curve in the back of the neck that keeps the head balanced on the shoulders. I looked & looked for that picture of the x-ray that so impressed me so I could share it with you, but so far it is eluding me. Basically, keep a nice open backward arch in the neck instead of poking the neck forward from the shoulders. This effort has improved my posture (& my balance) more than anything.
I believe you are correct. Sometime I wonder if we are born with this. I was diagnosed at 75 but sometimes remember something long ago that could easily relate. Such as dreams, jerking and slight tremors occasioally.
Prior to retirement, I noticed some changes that I turned a blind eye to. I still had to work so I adjusted how I did things to make the workday easier. One issue that occurred should have sent out alarms, but didn't. I worked in banking and some of the documents were filled out in pen and paper and not on a computer. I would find that I had difficulty writing or printing. Since these were legal documents, I had to make sure my writing could be clearly read. Sitting in front of clients and attempting to fill out the forms was daunting. Talk about anxiety. So, whatever I could to on the computer was a relief. I built some of the hand written documents into computer forms to make my life easier. Interestingly enough, once I retired, those issues went away to some extent. Anxiety is a bugger.
Definitely. I lost my sense of smell at least 30 years prior to diagnosis. I started to clip my right toe when I walked, causing me to stumble. I'm 2011 , prior to my daughters wedding, I noticed my posture was slumped, my head jutted forward and I was not picking up my feet when I walked. But, after all, I'm getting older and that is what happens. In 2013 I started having trouble focusing my eyes and speech volume loss and vocal fatigue. Depression and severe fatigue were creating into my days. Double vision sent me to a optomoligist then a neurologist. Sometimes I feel like PD has been with me half of my life,
@A MyParkinsonsTeam Member, I started with a slight tremor in my right hand at the age of 25 years; I was diagnosed with PD at the age of 61. But with what I have learned about PD, I've had many more symptoms than a tremor for a very long time, and in fact, I had signs of a potential problem since I was a child, namely a sleep disorder. Eventually I believe researchers will find that PD begins at a much earlier age than what is currently known, and in fact, they already know that symptoms don't show up until the brain is quite affected. I guess I would say the saga continues...