Time for an update

My participation in the CoQ10 study is over. I had my last visit with the research nurse a few weeks ago, and now I'm just a regular PD patient. And this means ...... I've started medication. The doctor evaluated me and thought I didn't really need to be on meds yet, so I explained how I had difficulty driving because of the stiffness (dystonia) in my right foot. Then he said that since this is a safety issue, he'd rather put me on the Cadillac pill (Sinemet) than risk using anything less effective and have me get in an accident. I'm still interested in left foot driving solutions, but I'll see how this goes for a while first. I may even be putting off giving up driving a manual transmission for a while too.

How's it going you ask? Well, first thing is I'm typing this with two hands. It's not easy, but I'm getting through it. My right hand hasn't typed in a long time, or done much of anything else, so I'm getting used to just using my hand also. I'm feeling quite a bit better, and I only reached the full dose (you ramp up) a few days ago. My foot is alot less stiff, my arm is a lot less stiff, even my voice feels stronger. I haven't felt this normal in quite a while.

I've been working since the end of November, starting in Holland, MI and now thankfully in Troy, MI. So I'm crossing the border again every day. Work has been very busy, and exercise has unfortunately taken a back seat. We did get Wii Fit, and I've tried it out a bit. Judi is more disciplined though, and she's enjoying it.

Summer 2010 update

I haven't noticed a lot of change since March. I'm getting a little faster at one-handed typing. I'm back into biking, almost every day - being at home has taken away my excuses. I've only missed two days in the past month, and I'm doing about 6 miles per day.

 Judi and I are taking a vacation in July - at a cottage on Hall's Lake with her mom, brother and sister in-law. There's a paddle boat there, so we'll be able to keep pedalling.

Saving Passwords

I've always been against saving passwords, even using my own computer.

Tonight, I changed my mind. Typing passwords has become too much of a bother, as I'm making lots of typos.

Judi and I tried to get some video of my hand shaking while I'm eating, but the shutter speed on the digital camera seems to be too slow to capture it properly. We'll have to try again with better lighting.

Typing

Typing can be a bother, depending on how high I'm lifting my hands. I never can tell how much my hand is going to shake.

Yesterday I started typing and my hand shook very noticeably and I had to pull my arm away from the keyboard. There was no warning, and I pulled my hand back to my lap to get it to settle down.

Right now, it's hardly shaking at all. It's unpredictable.

I'm finding at work that it helps me to put a squeeze ball in my hand if I'm just clicking and not typing.