I finally got my sleep on Thursday night. Instead of logging into school, I played couch potato and watched TV instead. I went to bed early, and slept the whole night through (Yippie!) I actually felt pretty good on Friday. It's amazing how much a good night's sleep helps. I was quite pleased and wanted so much to have slept just a bit more in the morning, but alas I had to go to work. It was warm out even though we had some snow. The temperature was up in the mid-40's F (high single digits for centigrade) and it was sunny. What more could I ask for.

Well this was the calm before the storm. During the past week I've had a bit of a cold with a stuffed left-side sinus, and a mouthful of canker sores. I've always gotten them when I get a cold even when I was 5 years old. Well anyway, I walked my 1/2-mile to the sub shop during my lunch hour and walked back to work. I didn't feel too bad, besides it was so gorgeous outside with the temps in the mid 40's F (7-8 C) the walk was great. After lunch I noticed I had forgotten my drink so I power-walked back to the sub shop to pick it up. They were kind enough to remember me purchasing the drink and held it for me.

Well... the extra walk like that stressed me out wicked. I ended up with chest pains that didn't go away. I was also really really tired again, and could of napped right on the spot. I dealt with the pains for the rest of the day, thinking it was cold that had settled into my chest. I drove home with the pains in my chest, and ate a little supper. They came in waves and made my left hand numb. After supper they subsided when I played couch potato, but kicked in when I climbed the stairs to get my 8:00 Sinemet. Not good I said to myself. Later on, I went upstairs to finish up my homework, and the climb up the two flights of stairs made things worse. This time the pain was in the back as well. I tried lying across the bed, but that didn't help. I couldn't get away from the chest and back pain. I got scared and got a ride over to the ER.

In the ER, they checked my blood pressure which was actually pretty good at 110/70. They put me on monitors and eventually gave me some nitro. I kept reminding them of the PD because I was afraid of counter actions between the medications. The nitro killed the pain, but it came back again. This also really lowered by BP to 89/49 and that put the ER into a panic. I ended up being admitted for the weekend. I was kept on monitors, given blood thinners, and some morphine to kill the pain. This helped a lot and I slept. In fact I slept constantly, not because I was drugged, but because I felt so tired.

Saturday they checked me at night, and my blood pressure was still low and I had chest pains again. They gave me more nitro, and the pain went away. Later on, instead of more nitro for the pain, they gave me Ultrimine, which helped me sleep the night.

Sunday I woke up feeling sick to my stomach and my blood pressure had dropped again to 89/43 from a high of 104/53. The nurses took note and I slept until my first round of Sinemet and Amantadine. By the time they brought the Sinemet, my right foot and leg had a tremor! This is the second time I ever had a foot tremor in my life. The tremor was actually from the knee down through the calf muscle into the foot its self. This subsided once I got my morning Sinemet and Amantadine into me. I had to remind the nurse again about counter-actions between medication and other side-effects. She was going to give me compazine for the nausea! I told her don't do that and to check on something else instead. She gave me another med, which helped, but the name escapes me.

When I was finally released Sunday afternoon, I went home and slept again for another 4 hours. I am still exhausted as I type this, and that tremor is back in the right leg and now along with my right hand.

What was wrong? They still don't know. The heart came back fine. There were no signs of enzymes in my blood or any increase in white blood cells. I've been scheduled for a stress test, which ought to be fun, and hopefully that will show something. I've also been given a slew of new pills to take including high strength aspirin at 325 mg.

My attending physician also thought it could be the PD with some muscle spasms acrossed my chest and back. A form of dystonia perhaps? We discussed this in detail, and I made a note to mention this my neuro when I see her in February.

Anyway I see my PCP on Wednesday. Hopefully he can help get to the bottom of this. The thought did cross my mind about the low BP though. Isn't this another one of those autonomic symptoms I need to watch?

I'll keep everyone posted when I get my results from the stress test and my doctor's visit on Wednesday.

John