Stage 2

Tuesday 23 January 2018

I notice a slight tremor in my hand.

Nothing unusual about that. From time to time my hand shakes but it is only occasional and it usually doesn’t last more than a few seconds.

But then I look again in abject horror.

My heart skips a beat.

It is my left hand that is tremoring. My Parkinson’s started on my right side.

Can it be true? Can the disease have spread so rapidly to the other side of my brain that I am now starting Stage 2 only a year after being diagnosed with Stage 1? (See my previous post on the five stages of Parkinson’s.)

I open and close my left fist a few times, like I am asked to do at my medical appointments. Sure enough, the movements are slow due some stiffness, the same as I used to have on my right side when the thing first started. This stiffness on the left side is new. Meanwhile the stiffness in my right hand is worse than it used to be.

I am due to see The Professor in March for my next check-up at which point he will almost certainly introduce some new drugs to my pharmaceutical regimen. I feel under-medicated at the moment on my 1.57mg/day of pramipexole and I can’t increase my dosage of that due to all the side effects I experienced last year. There is now rigidity in my right hand most of the time and it occasionally tremors. My sleep is still disturbed, though better than it was a few months ago. When I go running, the discomfort in my right foot now starts soon after the first kilometre rather than half way through my 5K.

The slow death of the dopaminergic cells in my substantia nigra has undoubtedly continued throughout the year since I was diagnosed, but the start of symptoms on the other side of my body is an unexpected development. I hadn’t given much thought to when Stage 2 might start but I suppose I assumed it would be at least three or four years.

The symptoms will be alleviated soon enough when my meds are adjusted, and I will once again be able to function almost normally.

However, it is a stark reminder that the high stakes game of chess against the Parkinson’s grandmaster continues.

After some opening sparring in which we exchanged a couple of pawns each, he has now pulled off a surprise attack and moved a piece up – I have lost a knight perhaps. I still have plenty options on my side, but my defences have been weakened.

Across the world, teams of scientists continue to beaver away so that I might have smarter strategies at my disposal, if not to turn the tide then at least to prolong the match.

In the meantime, I make my next move in the knowledge that my shadowy adversary remains undefeated.

The endgame just edged a little bit closer.