Hi folks. My name is Martin. I’m a 69 year old living in a small village in Bedfordshire, England with my lovely wife and my devoted cocker spaniel, Elsie.
I had quite a high pressure business career for 50 years which I loved but for the last ten years I struggled a lot with lack of sleep, bouts of depression and other seemingly unrelated problems I now know to be caused by Parkinson’s. Things like loss of inability to concentrate, memory loss, smell sense loss, night terrors, toe cramps, constipation, only swinging one arm etc.
More than once I was told it couldn’t be Parkinson’s because I didn’t have tremor or facial masking. Of course that just got me more scared about what else it might be. I got to the point where I just couldn’t function. Finally I had a sleep study and was officially diagnosed with REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder in 2018. Because of the link between the two conditions I was signed up to a research program which meant I got 3 monthly check ups which finally led to a PD diagnosis.
I was notified over the telephone in 2020, right in the middle of covid lockdown when we couldn’t leave home to see doctors or meet up with family and friends. It took me a couple of years to get my head around it all and it was only the support of other parkys that I met online that got me to realise there is a positive way of living with this condition.
I now have an impressive tremor and other “proper” parky symptoms but giving up work, getting better (albeit drug induced) sleep and a cocktail of daily pills means I can live a good life, just not the one I had before.
I do a few exercise classes (reluctantly) write poetry, dabble with art, enjoy gardening, occasional fishing and watching football especially my childhood team Watford. Looking forward to getting to know the rest of you
Peace and Love
Martin
nice to meet you.