Essential Tremors Versus Parkinson's - Symptoms

Dear Readers,

Hello from Steamy Wisconsin.  The humidity is so thick you could almost cut it with knife (old phrase my mother used to say).  Not a breeze stirring either - downright  miserable outside.  Thank heavens for AC.

I've had a couple of questions regarding Essential Tremors and how it differs from Parkinson's.   They are closely related.   

In researching this in "The Parkinson's Disease  Treatment Book" by Dr. J. Eric Ahlskog at Mayo Clinic and also  webmd.com - Webmd sums it up the best.

 * Essential tremor is almost always worse when the affected part of the body is in motion than when it is at rest. Tremor associated with Parkinson's disease generally decreases or disappears when the person moves the affected part of the body.

 * Essential tremor is faster than the tremor of Parkinson's disease.

·* Small amounts of alcohol can noticeably reduce an essential tremor but usually have no effect on tremor caused by Parkinson's disease.

  * Essential tremor does not improve in response to levodopa, but it may be relieved with other medicines (propranolol, primidone, phenobarbital, or benzodiazepines).  (No kidding - I was on levodopa.)

  * Unlike tremor caused by Parkinson's disease, essential tremor will sometimes occur in family members.

As you can see, the two are very closely related. With ET, however, you don't get the frozen muscle problems that you end up with when having PD. In my case the determining factor after matching symptoms was the DaTSan, which clearly told the doctor my brain was showing ET versus PD.

Ha ha -I should have tried the alcohol test, but didn't.  Think I'll head for the kitchen after publishing this blog and see what happens.

I'm still taking only 1 tablet of the Primidone daily (but am allowed to take 2 daily). I'm doing quite well on this medication. As i have mentioned before, in some patients with ET the condition can turn into PD. There is no way of knowing and it's only a small percentage of people that happens to.

Oh yes, the back issue - I'm currently in Physical Pool Therapy.  It feels great while I'm in the pool, but then 2 hours later it's back to hurting and ice packs.
Hope you are managing to keep you cool this summer.

Mary

It's A Small, Small World!

Dear Readers,

This weekend we attended two graduation parties (tis the season).   On Sunday an amazing thing happened.   

The graduate's mom was introducing me to her own mother, her stepfather, and her mother's friend (we'll call her Lady H) and mentioned that Lady H was from a city (Beloit) that is 150 miles south of us.   Oh a whim, I asked Lady H if she by any chance knew Lady B, who is a very good friend of ours.   Beloit has a population of about 50,000, so you would expect her answer to be "no!"

Well, I nearly feel over when Lady H said Lady B happened to be a very good friend of hers and in fact, she was also a friend of the graduate's grandma.  Talk about a small world!  Who would have ever thought that would happen.

We had a very enjoyable time discussing mutual memories because they were also friends with another dear friend of ours (Lady BL who has passed on).

So many times I have asked someone from another city/town if they knew "so and so," and of course the answer is always no unless that person lives in a very small town where everyone knows everyone!

It's a small, small world after all!

Has that ever happened to you?


Mary

P.S.   This post was going to be about the difference between PD and ET, but I just had to tell this unusual story.