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My Symptoms
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The Past
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Alot of people ask me " when did I first feel something was wrong and what did I do about it?". The first time, I went to my GP because I had hurt my back and I pointed out how unfit I felt and how bad my posture was. His advice was to take up horse riding and maybe working permanent nights, at the time, was leaving me in a tired state. After a few visits to him, pointing out my difficulty when running and overall fitness , I felt the need to get a second opinion. Never did it cross my mind, that I may have something genetic, neither that, what I had, bared any resemblance to what my mother had suffered from about 20 years earlier. I felt people watching me as I carried my drink. It made it worse when I happened to be in a pub. Another thing I have always done badly is dance but I am told that you don't have to have Ataxia to acquire that skill. I think what made me get referred in the end ( by a clever lady who is now my GP) was my inability to pigeon step. I could not walk heal to toe( as though I was on a tightrope). |
After I was diagnosed it came as some relief to know that there was something wrong and it was not just my imagination. It took some understanding to imagine my mothers predicament twenty years earlier. Even fewer people or GP's had heard of Ataxia. The first time my dad had heard of it was when he saw it on my mums death certificate. I suppose it troubles me somewhat to know that somebody had heard of it because it was on my mums death certificate. I feel nothing but love and admiration for my dad who cared for my mum, through, what we now know as Ataxia, for over ten years.
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