Hello, below are my symptoms. Does this sound like Parkinson's? Thank You.

First, I want to say I have no resting tremor, only action tremor. But I do have the following symptoms. My first symptom was only loss of fine motor skills in left hand for 2 years, then rest of symptoms followed.

1. Still have strength in left hand but loss of fine motor skills in left hand:
EXAMPLES:
- typing difficult in left hand
- buttons more difficult
- putting rubber glove on left hand difficult because can’t wiggle left hand

2. Slow and sometimes jerky movement of fingers. Violent tremor if I try to move fingers, hand arm fast.

3. Hand and wrist stiffness and less flexibility

4. Loss of automatic movement of left hand and left arm, have to think about motions.
EXAMPLE:
- have to think about swinging left arm when walking, otherwise left arm doesn’t swing

5. Action Tremor of left hand and arm when trying to make quick deliberate motions

6. Occasional Drooling when I am concentrating on a task. Lots of drooling at night

7. Weak left shoulder

8. Wife tells me that I sometimes might drag my left foot when walking in the park

9. Occasional brain fog and not as much mental energy

Welcome, John Robinson!

It sounds as if you might not have consulted a doctor yet about your symptoms. I have MS and am not very knowledgeable about Parkinson's disease but I did find this, which sums up what to look for, in case you haven't already found this information:

Parkinson's Disease | National Institute on Aging

Your symptoms indicate what the medical people would call a left-side paresis, meaning that your left side is showing some signs of paralysis.

The drooling might be related to that. Do you happen to notice it the drooling originates mainly in the left side of your mouth?

Parkinson's disease can begin with these unilateral symptoms as I understand it. But your problems could also be due to any number of other causes.

If you have a primary care doctor, I hope you will describe your symptoms to that person and request a referral to a neurologist.

You will probably be put through a few tests because many disorders will need to be ruled out before a diagnosis is reached. Warning: This does take time.

I hope you will get some useful answers soon!

We have a PD fourm to explore if you haven't found it yet.
https://www.neurotalk.org/parkinson-s-disease/
There isn't a clear test for PD, so other possible conditions need to be ruled out..

Welcome John Robinson.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Even before I retired, my left hand was not functioning correctly (loss of fine motor skills, difficulty typing) I don't have a resting tremor but do have a tremor when using my left hand. I ended up seeing a neurology nurse practitioner who ordered an MRI of brain and spine back in April. Some spinal stenosis and some cervical spondylosis showed up. So she sent me to a neurosurgeon. When I went there I saw a physician assistant who did not think the neck problems were causing my problems so he sent me to an orthopedic, doctor. The orthopedic doctor sent me back to neurology. This time I saw a neurologist. The neurologist said it could be Parkinson's, let's try some carbidopa / levodopa. So, I started that in August and took it for one month. I could not tell it was helping so I called him and asked him if I could wean off. He said yes. I was taking 1 tab tid so I went to 1/2 tab tid for a couple of days and then stopped. 20% of people can get a "Dopamine Agonist Withdrawal Syndrome" and that was me. I woke up at 2 AM with very unpleasant symptoms. (You can look up "Dopamine Agonist Withdrawal Syndrome" to see what I mean.) So, I went back on and the symptoms went away. So, I started weaning more slowly. 1/2 tab tid for several days, then went to 1/4 tab tid. The miserable symptoms returned so I went up to 1/4 tab q6h. It took a several miserable days of insomnia and nausea to finally feel better. So now he put me on a different Parkinson's med that I started yesterday. I am beginning to wander if I really do have Parkinson's or not. Since I stopped the carbidopa/levadopa in September, I have not slept through the night. Wake up at 2:30 toss and turn for an hour and I usually end up taking something to help me sleep.

If you don't respond to levodopa by noticing that your symptoms improve, that could mean that you don't have Parkinson's disease as I understand it.

Then there is your tremor, which is typically a resting tremor in PD but not for you. If you meet the other criteria, you might want to assume you have PD anyway until someone comes along with a more appropriate diagnosis.

Rereading the material in that link I posted earlier, I'm finding that some people "don't respond well" to the levodopa/carbidopa routine. There is another option, deep brain stimulation, but it involves surgery. I'm guessing you'd prefer not to go that route, or at least that would be my choice.

But they also mention "Other Therapies," and these might actually help you. Worth a try? You do seem to have other symptoms/signs of PD, and since there's no diagnostic test that would clinch the diagnosis, you might be well advised to take a conservative approach such as outlined below:

The meds route often depends on how much symptoms are impacting your daily life.

When taking PD meds for years (or sooner) you can start having adverse side effects from those meds..

Our search tool can find info on PD meds posted about on our PD forum.