No, I hadn’t heard of it either.
When I started running again, my left leg would be normal for a while and then do its own thing.
A friend of mine described it as though I was running with cerebral palsy on one side. Little did they know how close they were to the cause. I called it “trolley leg”. Because of my knee, everyone (including me) went to town on my back, knee, leg, nerves, ankle – anything related to my leg. I had scans on everything. And all the results showed that I was mechanically sound. But that took 18 months of frustration, false hope, staggering around with a locked leg and generally being a pain in the neck to my family.
Eventually I saw a neurologist at the National Neurological hospital for some nerve tests. After hearing my symptoms he told me that he thought I had Exercise Induced Dystonia. So the problem was up top rather than the leg. (Mechanically sound, mentally not so much)
Dystonia can occur independently from Parkinson’s, and it had already been suggested to me that it could be the problem. So I was then looking at brain training and plasticity courses. It wouldn’t solve the problem of my leg but would help me cope. By now the leg was spasming after walking for a few minutes and running was out of the question.
Shortly after this, I was also aware that my sleep was getting a lot more disturbed, and consequently my concentration was failing. My handwriting was getting worse – it has always been small, but now the pen would travel in fits and starts across the page. And I was suffering worse with constipation (I’d had it for years but luckily I love liquorice and fig rolls). The GP listened to my symptoms and referred me to the local hospital. And on 10th January 2019 I was given the diagnosis that changed my life.
I had Parkinson’s.
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