Nutrient deficient? Possible. I don't know what nutrient might be deficient other than one. A physical by the VA hospital a few months ago showed that I was calcium deficient, so I've been taking calcium supplements ever since. Other than that, I eat a healthy diet and take pretty good care of myself. I'm actually in rather good health for being 55 years old. I've been tested for just about everything the doctor can think of, and almost everything checks out fine. Also, through my reading on the subject, I don't recall having read of any dietary supplements that improve the symptoms of PD.

The only bad news is that two colon cancer screening tests have come back positive. They subsequently did a blood test and have scheduled a colonoscopy. I had a colonoscopy a year ago, and checked out OK, but they're doing another because of the bleeding. This problem, however, is far more recent than most of the PD symptoms I've noted.

Reasons I think I may have PD? I have a list of symptoms that are part of the PD package. They are all relieved by sinemet. I can even tell when I'm running low on my sinemet dose, because the symptoms return. The problem I've had the longest is bradykinesia. It has been affecting me for more than fifteen years, and getting worse very very slowly. I tried many things and nothing helped. Then, a few months ago, they gave me sinemet for RLS and the bradykinesia went away. Over more than a decade and a half, it was the first thing that actually helped. I mentioned other problems in my original post, such as dragging my left foot and walking with a limp because my left hip is usually very stiff. Now, with sinemet, I can walk normally again. I'm not dragging my foot and my hip moves normally.

Depression? I think it's very possible that I'm depressed. However, there's a chicken or the egg problem when it comes to depression. The question is: Do I have symptoms because I'm depressed, or, am I depressed because I have symptoms? I favor the latter. Trying to talk to a doctor who just doesn't seem to be listening is very frustrating--and eventually depressing. My first doctor seemed to make up his mind early and seemed to ignore everything after that. If I have depression because I have PD, and depression is common with PD, I think I would rather avoid antidepressants until I really need them and try to attack the depression by treating the symptoms and appling non-drug methods such as exercise. My gut instinct is to use as few drugs as possible.

My life over that past few years has been a slippery slope downward. Less than two years ago I was an assistant registrar at a PAC-10 university who was widely recognized for having successfully implemented several technology systems at the university. I had won national awards for some of my work. But things started to go wrong at work. A new boss came in who had very little experience and started putting a lot of pressure on me and I started having symptoms like resting tremors, intense fatigue, confusion, pain around my eyes--essentially, the stress made everything much worse. (The stiffness, foot-dragging, and some other symptoms had started earlier, but I just tried to ignore those problems and keep on working.) The new boss eventually removed me from my position and gave my job to her best friend. (The friend, by the way, knew nothing about technology and was removed from the position after four months. Now, they've hired someone else and I have no job to return to. I've been erased.) I was told to work from home and only to do programming--and they would tell me what programming to do.

Those were dreary days for me. If I hadn't been forced to watch my career evaporate in front of my own eyes, I might have been better able to realize that something was going wrong inside. That's where the doctor got the idea that I was chronically depressed. But I don't think it was chronic. I think it was situational and made worse by PD. Now, I've been away from work for eight months and have a perspective that I didn't have during those dark days. I think my performance had been falling off and I had been trying to hide it or compensate for it--often by working even harder and putting myself under even more stress.

Speaking of stress, throughout the whole time I noticed that stress seemed to make my problems worse, and I kept telling that to my doctor. After reading these forums and other web resources, I can now see that I'm not the only one who has experienced the problems that stress can create.

Writing this answer has induced stress, but at the same time, it feels good to let it out. It has me tired though.

Tomorrow, I meet with an HRS representative at the university to talk about returning to work. I haven't seen the doctor's recommendation yet, but I'm assuming it's still based on a diagnosis of chronic depression.

Thanks,

Karl