Hello, my name is Dave, I'm 44 and just joined the group tonight. This is the story of an extremely stubborn guy who didn't see a doctor until it got so bad where it was a chore to leave my cubicle at work and walk to the men's room with my right arm frozen at maybe 110 degrees. I had been living alone for about two years after noticing the first symptoms, 6 years altogether until I called the doctor.
Pinpointing the time when I noticed the first symptom is difficult. They say depression can be an initial symptom for some patients, and it hit me hard about ten years ago. So a doctor prescribed Effexor which I was on for three years which was probably too long. Enough of that though, I will focus on the outwardly symptoms otherwise I'd have to write a book of my experience. 
I was walking the dog along the lake in 2004 and was turning back to head home when I decided to hoof it instead of walking. It just took a few strides for me to notice something was not right, my right leg felt like it was longer than the left. Thought this is kind of strange so I tried again, this time on the sidewalk thinking uneven ground along the lake was the problem. Nope! I remember a strange feeling coming over me, more like an oh #$%!, something is not right here but I wasn't having a heart attack and life was normal so I moved on.
So now we have the right foot to deal with. So looking back a year prior I felt like I was always dealing with an ingrown toenail on my big toe. Little did I realize that this was because my foot and ankle were starting to stiffen to a point where my big toe was rubbing the side of the shoe. So I figured I'd just get some wider shoes. This helped somewhat but I have thin ankles and heels so I really laced my shoes tight. Right around the same time during a final exam I was taking a final exam for a grad school class and my wrist became sore after writing a few short essays. Chalked that one up to "hey who writes anymore anyway we pc's, my wrist is just outta shape".
In 2005, I started experiencing pain in the underfoot area between the 4th and 5th metatarsel before you get to the arch. So I limped around for a year. Oh, I forgot to mention, I had a drinking problem, beer mostly, lived alone etc. So about this time I'm starting to fall apart physically at 38 years old which I blamed on booze and anti depressants. It was very frustrating because I was such an athlete in my high school and college years and was still running at a good clip at 35. I thought if I kick the booze I'll be alright. I skipped my 20 year reunion that summer.
2006 rolls in and I visit a podiatrist who prescribes orthotics. This relieved the pain in the forefoot but made the big toe rubbing worse. About this time, I'm like alright I'm back foot pain gone time to start running Sorry! 
Now my foot kinda flopped and after a half mile of running it would contort and twist. So I continue to deal with it thinking the orthotics aren't broken in yet, that maybe all the damage from rolling my foot and ankle playing soccer, wrestling, and running cross country had taken its toll.
Starting to lose confidence now, because I can't run, I'm limping, feel outta shape. So for the next three years I drove to a little used nature preserve and exercised away from the crowds. I blamed the numbness that was starting now to creep up near the shin on tight shoelaces needed to keep my foot stable In the back of my mind I knew ...
2007 kinda flew by.... more drinking. Noticed stirring anything on the stove was difficult. I became more ambidextrous every day.
2008 came, I found a new job. After the interview, my future boss asked if I could complete a job application right then and there. Well I'm sure everyone reading this can relate! By this time my handwriting was so slow! By the end of the year, I was using my left hand to assist with the right just to move the computer mouse. Around this time some colleagues began asking what was wrong.
2009 my parents started seeing more of me and my mother thought I had a stroke. This is when my shoulder started to stiffen up. By Thanksgiving, my foot was not just catching the ground and stiff, I was dragging it, walking was becoming a chore now. At XMAS my brother asked my mother what was wrong with me. By this time my arm was tucked in at 110 degrees.
Now we get to 2010. Now I'm stumbling around. I'm thinking time to quit drinking! I need to get healthy. After a month, I still had these symptoms so I thought " hey my withdrawal cycle takes longer" Around this this time two close friends saw me, one thought I looked like I had been hit by a truck while the other said you shouldn't have to think about walking. This was around the same time I was putting my shoulder into the wall while taking corners.
So I set the appt to see a doctor and cried that morning during the ten minute drive over. Physical results came up negative, of course the doc referred me to an outpatient rehab center. The guy never watched me walk or addressed my shoulder! So I set an appt with another doctor, I think he knew, I was referred to an orthopedic for an EMG. No MS! No ALS!
So now its time for physical therapy. My 4th appt I was seeing a guy filling in for my therapist. After about ten minutes he put an end to the session and I can say this gentleman, who's not a doctor, was the one who got the ball rolling. He called my doctor and I went in for an MRI two days later. MRI was negative. However, the orthopedic referred me to a nuerologist which of course took 3 weeks to get in to see...
Oh I forgot, while I'm going through this I'm also seeing a psychiatrist and psychologist lol. The psychiatrist gave me a prescription for depakote! Granted this was before my official diagnosis date about two weeks later. However, looking back, I figured a doctor would know better than to continue to prescribe an anti-psychotic to a PD patient.
I see the neurologist in June and I'm outta there in a half hour it was so obvious. Told me to then take a seat and asked if I had done any research on what I was going through. I said nueropathy? shook his head , Parkinson's? ..... Now I'm in one of those shock phases you may experience only a few times in your life and my leg and foot are stiff he had to help me put my socks on. He then gives me the gift bag of 0.375mg of Mirapex and we set an appt at Booth Gardner PD Center, of course another month out.
I'm almost done. The next month was a complete collapse. Either it was the Mirapex or the depakote. I started freezing, began using a cane, would run from the car to wherever I was going. Isn't that odd. My weight was shifting to the other leg so much I began to collapse to one knee often. Walking into a room and turning on the light required two actions. Bottom line is I had sunk so far finally to a point where medication was required.
After seeing the specialist, I was prescribed Sinemet. I took one pill that night and the turnaround began. A week or two later I rolled over in bed and felt the encapsulated shoulder crack like walking on ice, very strange but relief! So I went back to work after FMLA, and now I feel like a normal person does at work. However, this disease is always present, the symptoms are masked but I still feel him in the background. At least I have been fortunate so far to not have to go through those freezing episodes since I began medication. I don't experience much tremor, just stiffness.
So my PD cocktail looks like one those vitamin packs. They have me on sinemet, requip, azilect, and now Comtan. Think I'm getting a bad reaction to the Comtan as my muscles really tighten up in my foot, lower back and hip.
Seeing the specialist again tomorrow to discuss.
Thanks for allowing me to post this story. I'm sure you can all relate. Those were some dark lonely years between 35-43. I avoided my friends, skipped family functions, you name it. I know now I wasn't a basket case with mental illness or an alcoholic, although drinking was a problem, but it was the PD eating away at my brain.
"When I first came to MDJ, I was in need of peer support in dealing with issues of my childhood abuse. I was moving away from the painful issues and trying to find an uplifting group of people to help me transition to a thriver in my life. I found that here. I also found a group of peers with Fibromyalgia and found the same uplifting experience there. My computer crashed and it was a while before I found my way back, this time with issues related to Parkinson's Disease. I had tried a few other support sites before reminding myself of MDJ. On those, I never got a reply. I finally found my way back here and again found very supportive, caring and inspiring people who made me feel like I was 'back home'. Indeed I am." (ThereseML)
