Do your most affected side looks smaller?

[LING]

Usually, PD starts on one side of the body. In my case, it started on my right hand (side) and is becoming more bilateral after 6 years of Dx. Recently, I find that my right hand/ leg looks relatively smaller than the left hand/leg. Is that a result of PD progress that affects my right side more seriously than the left side?

[reverett123]

Usually, PD starts on one side of the body. In my case, it started on my right hand (side) and is becoming more bilateral after 6 years of Dx. Recently, I find that my right hand/ leg looks relatively smaller than the left hand/leg. Is that a result of PD progress that affects my right side more seriously than the left side?

My right calf has been noticeably smaller than my left for several years, although I was looking in the mirror just the other day and thinking it seemed less so. Diabetic neuropathies can do the same thing and may be a clue to similar processes at work.

I just took another look and I swear that it has improved! I wish I had measured the circumfrence a few months back. If it has improved as a result of anything I have done the only real candidate is the lipoic acid, acetyl carnitine, and L carnosine mix I have mentioned elsewhere. It is also said to be effective for diabetic neuropathy so maybe there really is a connection.

[KC Tower]

I Have been wondering about a possible decrease in the size/length of my right leg (dominant and most effected but to a small extent). I can't recall ever noticing this before the last year or so. Time to get out the tape and document No meds after 4.2 years.

,,, ken

Usually, PD starts on one side of the body. In my case, it started on my right hand (side) and is becoming more bilateral after 6 years of Dx. Recently, I find that my right hand/ leg looks relatively smaller than the left hand/leg. Is that a result of PD progress that affects my right side more seriously than the left side?

[vlhperry]

Do you suffer from dystonia? That might be a possible explanation. Sometimes a side effect of Sinemet can cause dystonia.

P.S. Moderators, note how much information is being shared by not using the "Thanks" button to share information, not just to vote yes. Oh no! have I risked getting censored because I pointed out a point in an inappropriate post. How naughty of me!!! LOL

Vicky

[Jo*mar]

My dad has supposedly a shorter leg - I wonder now that I go to a chiropractor - if it is actually his hips that are uneven.

he was in a motorcycle accident - where it flipped up and over landing on his back - he was trying to cover/protect my little brother that was riding with him at the time. in a field.

I knew my shoulders were crooked for quite awhile -but since chiropractic - and searching for info on it....

anyway the C1/C2 can get bumped out of alignment which can cause misalignments in the whole body. Causing hips/pelvis and other areas to compensate down the chain.

info-
Chiropractic care info- a good one can help with many symptoms:
http://www.upcspine.com/self.htm
http://www.uppercervical.org/subpag...b/about_faq.php
http://www.spineuniverse.com/index.html
http://www.coloradochiropractic.org/.../glossary.html

some do or don't "believe "in chiropractic

- but I'm more or less just wondering if any of you have had an evaluation for any such misalignments or as to leg length vs hip unevenness?

[boann]

i am, or was, right handed, and the right is my most affected side. i started having symptoms in 1996 and by the time i sought medical help in 1998, i had noticed distinct atrophy in one area of my right hand - if you are looking at the palm of your right hand, this would be the muscle(s) on the left side, stretching from the bottom of your pinkie down to your wrist. that area had atrophied already at that point. has atrophied a little more since then, but not hugely. have never checked other areas for atrophy.

since parkinson's does not involve atrophy, neurologists didn't know what to do with it. hence, ultimately, it was and continues to be disregarded.

[Jo*mar]

Boann, some with repetitive strain injuries will have atrophy- do you think that might be a part of it in the case of your hand?
Some will even get a clawing tendency in the hand.

[BEMM]

My left side is the one affected, luckily for me since I am right handed. My left leg feels shorter than my right leg. I'm not sure that it is shorter, because it tends to 'collapse' when I put weight on it. I have a pronounced limp after walking for more than a few minutes.
My left hip is slimmer than my right hip. My pants' zippers are never in the middle of my stomach, but both arm and leg and hand and foot on my left side are the same size as ever.
My right side has always been a little bigger than the left. My ears have a centimeter's difference in length, and my right foot is 1/2 size bigger than the left. Even the fingers on my right hand are slightly longer than the ones on the left. I was just not very evenly made to begin with.

birte

[boann]

repetitive strain... never thought of it. can it occur without pain or some other sensation (buzzing, tingling, numbness, weakness)?

[Jo*mar]

Boann- I suppose if it was very mild- mine {RSI/TOS} is mild now - but i do have finger coordination problems/ or maybe brain/finger coordination problems?

like with typing and writing - my brain knows the keys /letters but fingers go elsewhere - thank goodness for instant spell check!
If I didn't have that my typing would require a lot of fixes- LOL

I think I recall most mentioning atrophy of the thumb pad also.

when you mentioned your atrophy I was just curious if it might be RSI related.
Most likely at some point there would have been some discomfort in your hands, arms , neck or shoulders.

Bemm - my eyes and ears are slightly uneven too.


I have hyper mobile joints also - one time i jumped off from the tailgate of our 4x4 truck and landed more on one leg than the other.
3 days later was my chiro appt - I could tell that i got myself out of balance- I could feel it.
My DC noticed it right away & fixed it easily.

[boann]

I guess i would have to come down on the side of the atrophy not being RSI-related, then, considering that i have had none of the concomitant symptoms, and it would be pretty coincidental to be experiencing virtually symptom-less RSI starting around the same time my PD symptoms started, in the same hand.

it remains a mystery, but at least now i know i am not the only one experiencing it.

[LING]

Thanks to all of you in sharing. my puzzle is that if there was atrophy on our most affected side. Such asymmetric may be part to blame for some of our problems - say difficulty in balance, leg/ foot cramp, walking difficulties.

[Ibken]

Thanks for bringing this up, Ling.

I have been noticing and following these anatomical "irregularities" even prior to pd dx. At this point I feel these quirks, atrophies, assymetries ARE PD. Not just symptoms of or caused by PD, but are a "map" of the actual underlying "PD" itself.

The initiating "fulcrum' in the inexorable chain of changes going on in our bodies may be different for each of us. I think some degree of trauma- at birth or any big or little insult/injury along the way - or combinations thereof - has set in motion an on going anatomical distortion - which has created an over-the-top demand for Dopamine - and that our dopamine producing cells are TIRED and can't make the stuff fast enough.

I've seen many chiropractors, physical therapists, massage therapists. energy workers, acupuncturists, rolfers.......did I leave anyone out? - with some degree of relief but no resolution....yet. The problem is co-ordinating this kind of therapy....and/orfinding someone who really understands ALL of our systems -- skeletal, muscular, neuroulogical, energy channels, circulatory, etc... and I am fruustrated that neurologists - 'our' specialists - don't even look at our bodies! I have: one shoulder higher than the other - all my shirt necks are crooked, a tilted - rotated pelvis, one hip a smidgeon higher than the other, a crooked sternum, puffy knee, short left leg, misaligned atlas and axis (1st & 2nd vertebrae), - etc. Most people don't notice any of these things unless I point them out. And not one neurologisthas ever even looked at my body or asked about any abnormailities.

I've noticed the hip replacements, neck surgeries, foot problems, etc. so common to us onthis site.

Right now I'm obsessed with the area above my left ankle toward the front of my leg. It is hard, thick, and bumpy, lumpy to touch. When I don't take quite enough l-dopa, I feel it get stuck/blocked there. Did anyone read MJF's LUCKY MAN ? Remember his description of waiting for the meds to kick-in and the thing that happened in his foot, twisting, AH! Relief!

I could blab forever on this topic but I'm tired. I bumped something on Thanksgiving and overnight took a major dive - could barely walk the next day. In Jan when I got to a chiro found my 'pattern' had reversed and tho I am slowly improving, I'm still a mess.

I would love to hear what anyone out there has noticed along these lines and what therapies may have helped.:o Ibby

[lindylanka]

This is very interesting - I definitely had a lot of assymetry prior to taking meds. In particular I had a high tight right shoulder and hip, was very rigid through that side. I also had a pull towards the right - my body would pull that way and my feet would be pointing leftward, about a 45 degree discrepancy!! My jeans were always short on the right leg, and the lack of stretch to the right meant that turning to the left was difficult. These body peculiarities return when I get very late taking meds, but not to the same degree as before. I still find turning to the left hard, and turning my head that way is difficult, and I can see the assymetry, though it is nowhere near as much of a problem as pre-dx.

i am what used to be called rigid akinetic, but haven't heard that phrase used for a while now. I would say that my right (affected) side has some atrophy especially shoulder to waist, but it is also longer. NO-one comments on this, but I list to the left, noticeably. Many of my right side symptoms over about seven years prior to dx had other labels such as RSI, intercostal chondroitis, arthritis, sciatica, cervical spondylosis, TMJ, fibromyalgia,etc. I simply did not believe i had all that going on, and was sure there was just one condition that was causing it all. I didin't go to doctors for several years until I started to really not manage. Sinemet has improved things immensely, and did so from the first tablet I took. Had daily migraine, often several times a day, from facial rigidity - have had three in four years since going on meds..... I wonder also whether these assymetries are in part improved as I developed left hand symptoms too.

I too believe that there are physiological changes that are part of PD, and not dealt with 100% by taking PD meds, but know that each persons is their own best judge of what is happening on the inside - just wish that the docs would ever even ask what PD is like, there would be a lot learned from them listening to our subjective views and mapping out the results of what it actually FEELS like. (I have a pet theory that if many people described the sensations dominant descriptors would emerge that would help in the understanding of many neurological condition. They are unable as yet to understand such common problems as dyslexia, if they asked the right quetions......)

I have a holistic view of it, it simply isn't all losing 80% percent of those 400,000 cells or whatever is postulated, there are other factors at work too. None of the therapies I have had has had lasting benefit, a walk in the sunshine helps more than anything:) Sorry about the ramble.........

Lindy