It Seems So Obvious Now, Part 2

I just checked, and the last time I wrote an entry was on October 13th.  Sorry, but that's way too long.  Perhaps I had nothing to say.  Perhaps I lost my nerve and didn't want to share.  The truth is probably the latter.  Well, I have regained my nerve and I want to share a few things.  Actually, I feel like I need to.

All through the summer of 2011, I had this inexplicable pain in my right elbow and shoulder.  I was wondering if I hurt my arm playing catch with my son.  Then I remembered that he wasn't playing in a league that summer, so that wasn't it.  I thought maybe I hurt it lifting weights.  Then I remembered that I wasn't exactly living in the gym at the time, so that wasn't it.  I had a full physical exam, and everything checked out fine.

So what was it?  All I could do was shrug my shoulders because I had no clue.  But shrugging my shoulders hurt, so I couldn't do that either.  I just knew the following:  1) I was in constant pain.  2) I had no clue why.  3) I often smelled like Ben Gay!  Nice!

By the fall, the pain had subsided...somewhat, but my typing skills deteriorated more (it's all relative...I typed 70+ wpm at one time), and my right pinky and thumb started acting on their own, as if they were no longer connected to me.  In December, I was in need of a cup of coffee, so I walked to the kitchen at work to get a cup, but before I got there I just stopped dead in my tracks because I noticed something extremely startling...

My right arm wouldn't move!  It just hung there, stiff as a board.

Surely you've noticed that when most people walk, they swing both arms.  Well, I was swinging one arm.  It must have looked ridiculous, and I wondered for weeks how long I had been walking like that without noticing.  Of course, I also wondered how many other people noticed and never said anything, at least to me.  So you're wondering what I did next.  Did I tell my wife?  Did I see a doctor?  Did I confide in a close friend?  The answer to all of those questions is no.  Did you expect something else?  This is what men have been doing for centuries, hiding potentially major medical issues from everybody and living in denial.

So...after pondering this problem, I found one rather obvious solution, three words that I would scream in my head multiple times a day...

SWING YOUR ARM!!!

There.  Problem solved.

Except it wasn't.  It just got worse.

Then, during a particularly stressful event, an earthquake happened.  In my right leg!  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

WTF??  So I did what many of us do when we have unusual symptoms. Visited webmd.com.  Looked up some symptoms.  Found some bad things under the Parkinson's disease page, bad things that applied to me...

• Initial symptoms were just on one side of my body
• Tremor in one hand (right pinky and thumb)
• Writing changes (my wife noticed my once neat handwriting was illegible and tiny)
• Tremor in right leg
• Anxiety (had it for a while the year before)
• My quick, heavy walk slowed considerably

Shall I go on?  This sucks.  But it will get better.  There is a reason for everything.

I will write again very soon.

Isaiah 25:8