In the middle of the night, very early morning, she gets up and becomes argumentative about staying up. Its about 3AM and I admit to being less than social at 3AM. Today for the first time she told me what was happening to her. She has severe leg cramps and partial immobility.
She has found that she can combat that feeling by struggling to get up and move around a bit.
I charged off on a search this morning with the internet of all knowledge and found this timely article at parkinsonsdisease.net [https://parkinsonsdisease.net/living/leg-pain].
…four types of leg pain in PD.
First type of leg pain is central pain
This pain is described as constant burning sensation with occasional burst of sharp pain. As it was in my case, this pain is commonly exacerbated by cold and by light touch. I could not stand the sheets to touch my skin and being in a cold room sent my pain through the roof. This type is usually bilateral but it may start on the side where other Parkinson’s symptoms begin. For me, it was the leg where my rest tremor began.
Second type of leg pain is caused by dystonia
When related to levodopa, it usually occurs as a wearing off but can also occur at peak dose. In most cases this leg pain is unilateral and has direct correlation to medication intake. When pain is due to dystonia, it is more common in early morning. This type of leg pain is usually accompanied by toes curling and foot abnormally posturing.
Third type of leg pain is musculoskeletal
Musculoskeletal pain occurs due to rigidity, abnormal posturing, and lack of mobility leading to pain in the legs. It may also affect the joint like the hip or knee. This pain is usually more pronounced on the more affected side. It can be localized or widespread and also can be sudden.
Fourth type of leg pain is radicular pain
In this case, the pain is caused by compression of nerves in lumbar area which results in weakness, numbness and tingling, and loss of reflexes from buttocks to foot in a distribution of a nerve. It can be acute or chronic, and can be worse with standing and sitting, or better with laying down. Of note: in my experience many patients including myself have these symptoms not because of physically herniated disc but rather by the stretching of a nerve in the canal as it exists due to severe musculoskeletal rigidity and abnormal posturing.
–Maria DeLeon
So there you are problem solved. 🙂 But – there is always a but – asked my wife of many years to read the referenced article and describe or discern as best she can the kind of pain she is feeling. Out comes a description of stabbing pain in her heals. In her words – like someone is stabbing pins into my foot.
So that sucks! Peripheral neuropathy can be related to Parkinson’s disease. Pardon my french but goddamn this disease. She often has numbness in her hands in the morning. It is hard for her some days to simply hold a spoon to put cereal in her mouth. I bought her four kangaroo cups (invented by a ten year old to help her grandpa) to help with her unsteadiness with the orange juice she has every morning. These work great and she likes them, so she uses them often.
Dealing with an ever changing range of symptoms, pains and degenerative cognition can wear one out.
Carpe Diem! I’m off to research different sorts of beds and mattresses, etc.
Adjunct_Wizard 