You are always welcome here, Therese, as is Doreen, who I hope will join us at some time when she is ready. Nothing to contribute? Nonsense! The two of you having been living with PD for how long now? And since you know how much you appreciate a response or a welcome, why not patrol for new people or for those who have not received a response after a day or two--that they are welcome and that surely someone will be along soon--which bumps the item to the top of the list for all to see and be reminded that we were all new once. It can be so comforting to be noticed, as we all know. After ten years on this board and its predecessors, I have said everything many times, and by now it takes all day, sometimes, just to get through the day. If I--and many others-- ever don't answer something I know about, it's because I haven't been able to get around to logging on, my day has been stressful already, I don't know the answer to a question, or my limit on thinking about PD for the day has been reached. And yes, weekends are slow. Don't ever think that we don't care, though. We do.
Ahem. Now to your question, "The bottom line question, I guess, is whether or not others of you experience imbalance after taking your "meds" and do you feel that this is a side effect of the "meds" or PD itself...or both?"
It depends. If I am overmedicated, I may be dyskinetic, so that I don't know what to expect. If I am undermedicated, I may be so stiff that I have would have difficulty recovering from an imbalance without my trusty cane or walking stick. If my meds are well-balanced, I still have a tendency to stagger a step or two backward or to the side. Sometimes I move backward so fast that I have to run into a wall, and my balance is poor during those episodes. In other words, balance is always a problem for me. One of the cardinal symptoms of PD is "postural instability"--poor balance. I vote for the disease, possibly with too much medication. I am not a doctor. Keep notes on it with times, time of waking, etc. and ask the ol' neuro.
First thing in the morning many of us have a supply of dopamine (I think) from the restorative processes that went on during sleep. I would have to look up the science of it, but I'm limber for a few minutes after waking--but I take meds as soon as I can reach the pill box. It takes 15 minutes to go off and and I'm starting to be on by an hour after waking. You might also ask the neuro if it isn't time for Doreen to take some of the meds on waking.
I have had PD for roughly 20 years in terms of symptoms and am over ten years past diagnosis. I have been taking a yoga class for a few months at the local senior center, and I'm less symptomatic altogether, with much better balance. This past week I spent two days at home during which I didn't use my cane at all.
My neuro has told me that losing weight will help my balance, too, and I have noticed that it's good to be careful to look after my osteoarthritis.
Sitting to standing: I think it's important for me to take a moment to compose myself in the standing position before taking the first step. Interesting abstract here:
Quote:
13: Neurosci Lett. 2009 Mar 13;452(2):136-40. Epub 2009 Jan 24.
Effects of postural threat on walking features of Parkinson's disease patients.
Caetano MJ, Gobbi LT, Sánchez-Arias Mdel R, Stella F, Gobbi S.
UNESP -- São Paulo State University at Rio Claro, Posture and Gait Studies Lab, Brazil.
This study investigated whether or not gait kinematics among healthy older individuals and Parkinson's disease (PD) patients are influenced by postural threat. Eight healthy older individuals and eight PD patients were examined while walking at self-selected velocities, under three conditions of postural threat: unconstrained floor; constrained floor (19cm wide); constrained and elevated floor (19cm wide by 10cm high). Independent of the surface conditions, due to motor disturbances caused by the PD these patients walked slower, with shorter strides, and spent more time in the double support phase and less time in the swing phase than did their matched controls. Increases in postural threat resulted in altered gait kinematics for all subjects. Specifically, stride length, stride velocity, cadence, and heel contact velocity decreased, and stride duration and double support duration increased relative to increases in postural threat. All gait alterations were the result of participants' attempts to facilitate locomotion control and maintain stability. The results of this study reveal that width and height constraints effectively perturbed the balance of all of the walking older individuals. The PD patients were able to modulate gait parameters when faced by a postural threat task.
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Best wishes,
Jaye