| I am 54 years old and female. It has taken 23 years + to diagnose my condition. Unfortunately because I am asthmatic, the drugs to alleviate the symptoms are very limited. I am currently on 5 mg of Clonazepam per day (with little effect I might add). When I first started taking it, I found some relief but now I feel I am getting less benefit from it. ( I've been taking it since mid 1999). I too was misdiagnosed, generally everyone was saying that it was my Asthma Inhalers / Asthma tablets that were causing 'the shakes'. I was also told that I had 'Essential tremors' but basically no one had any idea and I was always being 'sent away to just put up with it.' I finally went to see a Neurologist and even though he had never seen anyone with the complaint before, he had just read 3 articles about it. He put his stethoscope on my legs to listen and apparently the noise of the contractions sounded just like 'helicopter blades rotating' ! After checking with another renowned neurologist at Cambridge they all came to the same conclusion, I had Orthostatic tremors. I do believe mine started when I was going through a very difficult part of my life trying to control asthma attacks and the GPs were trying all types of tablets to get the asthma under control. The tremors started very suddenly and have been with me ever since. I do find it increasingly difficult to carry out normal household duties and it curtails any social activities. I make sure I'm near something to lean against , sit down to iron and do cooking chores and try not to go where I know there can be queues. Pam, Australia |