It's not about the shakes!

Three months after being diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease (PD), I was back at the hospital to meet with the neurologist for my first follow-up visit. It was a light-hearted meeting with a lot of laughter, chat and more importantly...Hope.

She carried out some standard test to see if I still had power in my limbs, all good, passed with flying colours. I explained I had been tinkering about with the Leva-Dopa tablets to get more on-times during the day and less off-times. She laughed and drew a timeline of when the medication is taken, when it kicks in and when it stops. My timeline was just as good! She decided to increase the dose just a small bit to provide more on-times across the day.

I explained I had bought a new set of clubs, thinking that my old set maybe too heavy as my golf was suffering with times when I cannot strike the ball. It never changed after I bought the new clubs....I was incredibly frustrated. I explained that I realized when I took the tablets and overlapped the morning dose with the lunchtime dose....the problem with missing the ball never arose. Aaaaghh, the off-time was causing the problem. What is the on-time and off-time you may be wondering.

Parkinson's reduces the ability to produce dopamine. For me personally it affects my coordination, uncontrolled muscle movements, cognitive skills, speech etc. I do not have a tremor, or the shakes...yet. As you can imagine, coordination is needed to play golf. The Leva-Dopa replaces the missing dopamine and reduces the symptoms above. My golf is back to normal, although my wallet is somewhat lighter after blaming the tools and buying a set of clubs I did not need.🤣🤣

On -Time is when the dopamine is working in the body and I have coordination etc. Off-time is where the dopamine has stopped working and my body is not coordinated, I get muscle spasms, can occasionally lose my train of thought and cannot hit a golf ball! Obviously the more on-time I have during the day, the better.

Closing the visit, we spoke about the possibility of Deep Brain Stimulation surgery (DBS). It is not required yet as the medication is work well. She said I would be considered for DBS as I am young...she made my day, not with the DBS but with the young part....see there is hope!