[Soliloquy]

Originally Posted by serenityvee

Hi Soliloquy,

Thank you for responding. I am saddened to hear your mum has PD too. How long has she had it and is she showing many signs?

I have regular blood tests which monitors all the organs that lithium effects, the thyroid being one of them but thank you for your concern

She first started showing symptoms around 2004. For quite some time it was just a tremor in her arm, it didn't impact her life much at all. The last few years it's progressed quite a bit. Her neurologist has the symptoms mostly managed but sometimes her blood pressure drops dangerously low and they're not sure why. And they need to tweak her meds at every visit because the disease is never really the same two days in a row.

One thing that's really impacting her that could've been prevented is that she almost no muscle mass. She wasn't overweight when she developed PD but the only exercise she did was walking. She did nothing to develop her muscles. The result is that she's getting weaker and weaker. She goes to the Y and they have free training at certain times and I've begged her to ask them to show her how to use the weight machines, even 2 lbs of resistance. But she doesn't. . Her posture is really bad now, too, to the point that her neurologist is really concerned. She needs to strengthen the muscles in her back and her legs. I live far away so all I can do is encourage her to try.