Taking a piece of paper out of her pocket, Jo Yaldren struggled to read her own handwriting.
She’d noticed that it was getting smaller and much harder to read but didn’t think much of it.
Jo, from Saltburn, North Yorkshire, had no idea that changes in your handwriting are an early symptom of Parkinson’s – the degenerative neurological condition, which Ozzy Osbourne recently revealed he has.
In 2015, at 47, Jo was diagnosed with the condition, which is usually associated with older people – just 1.2% of people are under 50 when they are diagnosed.
She tells Metro.co.uk: ‘My handwriting really disintegrated suddenly. I could barely write. It was almost indecipherable.
‘I now know that it was micrographia, which is associated with Parkinson’s, where your handwriting becomes small and cramped.’
As well as changes to her handwriting, Jo also noticed she was suffering from fatigue and she had a tremor in her left hand, which gradually got worse. She also had pain in her shoulder.
But she put it down to minor conditions like anaemia and a trapped nerve.
The 51-year-old says: ‘I was struggling with fatigue and had a tremor in my hand but initially it wasn’t that bad. Eventually, it was getting harder and harder to hide.
The symptoms of Parkinson's
The motor symptoms of Parkinson’s include:
- Tremor
- Rigidity
- Slowness of movement
- Falls and dizziness
- Freezing
- Muscle cramps and dystonia
The non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s include:
- Pain
- Fatigue
- Low blood pressure
- Restless legs
- Bladder and bowel problems
- Skin and sweating
- Sleep
- Eating, swallowing and saliva control
- Speech and communication issues
- Eye problems
- Foot care
- Dental health
Mental health issues
- Mild memory and thinking problems
- Anxiety
- Dementia
- Depression
- Hallucinations and delusions
‘I went to the doctor about the fatigue and I was diagnosed with anaemia and then the tremor was a trapped nerve.
‘My mood was terrible. I remember saying to my husband: ‘Everything is great but why am I so miserable all the time”.
‘I also became much stiffer and I had two frozen shoulders but I just put that down to getting older.
‘I know now that these were all symptoms but it was only after my diagnosis that I actually joined the dots.’
Jo was eventually diagnosed with the condition when her tremor got worse and she was referred to a neurologist.
She says: ‘I went on holiday with my sisters and being with them for a few days, I couldn’t hide the tremor from them. They frogmarched me to the GP when we got home and she said she wanted to refer me to a neurologist.
‘On the day of the appointment, my husband and daughter offered to come with me but I said that I probably wouldn’t get any results on the first visit and it would be fine.
‘I sat down with Dr Neil Archibald at The James Cook University Hospital and he told me I had Parkinson’s. As a nurse, I’d worked in cardiology but I had looked after people with Parkinson’s when I was a student and it was just so far away from anything that I thought I would experience.’
Like many people, Jo associated the condition with older people, and particularly older men.
‘Billy Connolly has the condition and I’ve seen other men with the condition but I just don’t know of any women with it. I just had this stereotypical view and I didn’t fit into that,’ she said.
After the shock of her diagnosis, Jo really struggled to come to terms with what living with the condition meant.
‘I just didn’t want anyone to know. I couldn’t bear that idea,’ she says.
‘There was a real loss of control and not telling people was the only control I had.
‘A friend of mine had breast cancer and she was talking about the support she gained from the online community of people with the same condition and I remember saying to her “I will never share this publicly.”’
Jo soon started treatment but alongside medication, she was also offered physio and counselling to help her discuss her condition.
‘The NHS has been amazing. I have this incredible multidisciplinary team who help in lots of ways.
‘I was given medication but there is a lot of alchemy that goes on – you could have 100 different people with Parkinson’s and they could have 100 different ways the condition manifests itself. It took a while to balance the concoction of meds I needed.
‘For me, the counselling was a huge help. I was devastated and went through a grief process. It took me years to come to terms with it and really get my head around it.’
Jo tried to continue working as a university lecturer after her diagnosis but she felt that the fatigue was too much and she eventually retired on medical grounds.
She still lives with fatigue, has dystonia, which causes pain and cramp in her left side and as she is left-handed, she has had to retrain herself to make her right hand the dominant hand.
She adds: ‘It does sound all doom and gloom but you can choose your attitude. One of the things I do have control of is how I respond to things.
‘I decided I wanted to start living my life. I really threw myself into yoga and that has been amazing. I got to do it at the Natural History Museum last year.
‘I also did a catwalk at a festival, stand up paddleboarding and a Boxing Day dip. I’ve started a community of beach cleaners in my local town and it has been fabulous. I write a blog about everything as well.
‘I had lots of embarrassment and worried about people thinking I was drunk but now I am talking openly about Parkinson’s and I want to raise money and awareness.’
Last year, Jo and her friends and family raised over £20,000 for Parkinson’s UK, as she says the information and support they have provided has been invaluable.
She says: ‘Now I feel I am in a position where I can do some advocacy and that might lead to at least one person feeling less shame if they are diagnosed too.’
‘When I was diagnosed, I said Parkinson’s is like the worst buffet ever – there are so many things that can happen.
‘Everyone wants a deadline but the doctor said he just couldn’t give me that. There are so many signs and symptoms and I might have some of them or all of them, they might but mild or they might be bad, they might come quickly or they might take a long time.
‘My symptoms are pretty good at the minute. I do a lot of exercise, which helps – I walk my dog nearly every day and I do yoga, mindfulness and Reiki but so much of this condition is unknown and that is really tricky.’
MORE: Mum can’t wrap kids’ Christmas presents after Parkinson’s diagnosis at just 34
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/30/mum-discovers-parkinsons-handwriting-changed-12153414/
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