The Right Arm Swinging - Saga of Stiffness

As with many people dealing with Parkinson's disease, the arm of my affected side does not swing naturally. I must make quite the strange picture. I usually walk quite fast. My left arm soldiers on in fine form with enough momentum to propel me in circles, while the right seems to have forgotten the cadence altogether, standing at attention like one of the Queen's Guards at Buckingham Palace. Recently, it seems to have forgotten how to do a number of things that it would normally. For instance, casually throwing my arm around the shoulders of my wife while out for a stroll on one of these recent cold nights would have been natural and easy only a few months ago. Now it feels as awkward as when I was a 12-year-old in the movies on a first date. Suave and sophisticated I was not. Furthermore, the sudden pain is like someone is wrenching my shoulder out of its socket. It appears that the stiffening is setting in like Jell-O in the refrigerator; imperceptibly slow but nonetheless noticeable from time to time.

Fortunately, the “bradykinesia” (a medical term for slow movement) or “akinesia” (absence of movement) does not affect much else. In some people with Parkinson's this problem can evidence itself in an expressionless face or even "freezing" in place, both constituting awkward and embarrassing social occasions. But for me, this right arm-swinging trouble constitutes nothing more than an inconvenience.

In the great scheme of things, this is hardly a major issue. But, as with the rest of life, learning the little lessons prepares us to take on the big ones. So what can I do about it? This is a question I believe we all need to ask when faced with challenges, in my case related to my mostly silent partner, Parkinson's.

First, when I notice my right arm absentmindedly failing to keep up with the left, I can be more intentional, forcing it to perform its normal duties. Second, I can get back to exercise and stretching (yuck!). Starting tomorrow I will climb back on the exercise wagon that I fall off so easily and regularly. Third, I can see a physiotherapist about doing the right things to offset the onset of stiffness. That I will do in early January. And fourth, despite all of the Olympic fervor and fever in anticipation of the upcoming Winter games here in British Columbia, I can abandon the idea that somehow I need to adopt the pursuit of going "faster, higher, farther".

As I have stated before, most battles begin with how we think about them. We are not defeated when we cannot do what we used to do, only when we cease to do what we can do.