| In August of 1999, I was painting the outside of my house when I noticed my legs shaking. As I hated heights, I put the shaking down to fear of heights and took little notice. My daughters were shocked to notice the tremor in my legs when standing. It had crept up on me slowly and I had learnt to compensate for the tremor by propping myself up and leaning on things. In February 2000, I visited the Doctor. She did various tests and made an appointment for me to see a neurologist. In June 2000, I was diagnosed as having Orthostatic Tremor. He also arranged an MRI scan to be sure that there was no other cause for the tremor. The scan, in the Autumn of 2000, revealed compressions on my spinal cord in the neck between C4-C6. I was sent to to the Neurosurgery Department at Oxford. In December 2000, I was told that the compressions might easily be the cause of the tremor. Surgery was necessary to stop the compressions making life more difficult but any improvement would be a bonus. I was operated on in November of 2001, by which time the tremor was exhausting. In December, I developed numbness and pins and needles in my hands, legs and trunk. In January 2002, after another scan, it was decided to operate again to further relieve the pressure on my spinal cord. In October 2002, I underwent further surgery. The operation caused the numbness and pins and needles to disappear but the tremor, which had diminished to a great degree, returned with a vengeance and I am back to square one with a diagnosis of Orthostatic Tremor. The discovery of the compressions on my spinal cord was fortuitous and the operations necessary, as sooner or later it would have led to severe and perhaps irreversible damage to the spine but appears to not have been the cause of the tremor. I followed a daily exercise regime to strengthen and improve muscle control in my hips and legs and I learned to relax for the first time in my life. The neurologist wants to try me on Clonazepam but I am resisting at the moment.
Lee, England |