How is Parkinson’s diagnosed? I have had numerous MRI’s nerve test. My Mother has Parkinson’s Her Sister. My first cousin on Mother’s side of family. I have muscle weakness. My arms feel like all strength is leaving them. At times I cannot well. Balance. Burning. HBP. Muscle pains. Feelings of tremors so bad on the inside. I get so weak and nauseated Ihave to lay down. Very fatigued. I did have a stroke 3 years ago. My neck hurts. All the time. MyDr says I have Neuropathy. No diabetes. The Neurologist gave me a nerve test. It was very painful. Said my brain scan did not look to bad. Mind you the I was just told I had a stroke 3 years ago by my cardiologist. This was just my last visit to him this year. I am on lots of meds. Gabapentin. 2 drugs for Bp and AFIB. I just do not think Iam diagnosed correctly. However I burn. I really burn. My insides are spastic.
How is Parkinson’s diagnosed : How is... - Cure Parkinson's
How is Parkinson’s diagnosed
By any chance did you look up IBM disease? A friend of ours has it otherwise I wouldn't have known anything about it
No. I guess I just get so upset reading about all these disease. I will though.
Get a second opinion from a different neurologist . Often the neuro will prescribe a small amount of Levadopa and if the Parkinsons medication helps than it can be concluded that you have Parkinsons.
You need to get a final diagnosis from a Movement Disorders Specialist.
I have a lot of experience with Parkinson’s. Most of the movement specialists here at Vanderbilt in Nashville require your Neurologist to send you. It takes months to get in. There seems to even be a shortage of Neurologist. According to my PCP we do not have enough medical schools here. 60 Minutes said by 2030 will have a shortage of 50 thousand Drs. I personally know 2 Drs that left the medical profession all together. Drs are sick of red tape and insurance. My Mother had a wonderful movement specialist. He lift Neurology to do cancer research, his first love.
My husband's MDS is Dr. Isaacs, at Vanderbilt. He is a sharp, very knowledgeable doctor. I am very impressed with him. We got an appointment in a year after we initially contacted Vanderbilt Neurology. 
We had Dr. Cooper.He was awesome. I don’t know who took his place. He left and went into cancer research of the brain. He was a brilliant young man.
23 and me can tell you whether you have inherited genetic mutations that can cause Parkinson's. I second the suggestion that a trial course of Sinemet can help determine whether you have Parkinson's. MRIs can only exclude other causes.
You know I am a Christian lady. I am terrified of Drs. Test. I am going to put my big drawers on though and try to get help. I was in the room alone with my Mother when she passed. I have a lot of the symptoms my Mom had. My Dr keeps saying NO you do not have Parkinson’s. He says I have Neuropathy. My stomach burns constantly. I have Cervical Radiculopathy from the stroke. It all started in my feet. Ihave a lot of burningand numbness.
Hello Nancy pls look up a hereditary nerve disorder called HNPP it really does sound like this as you say you have burning nerve pain .
It also causes fatigue. It causes numbness and even palsies sometimes .
It’s a deletion of a gene and basically means our nerves are in a very thin myelin sheath like tissue paper instead of the normal one. It is essential our nerves are never compressed as they can be damaged permanently.
On a positive note it’s far better than having PD.
My daughter and I take Lyrica to help . There is no cure it’s about managing the pain , treating it and care of your body .
Good luck
Burning and numbness are symptoms of neuropathy not Parkinson’s Disease. Why don’t you accept your doctor’s diagnosis?
Probably because I just don)t accept it in my head. So many people in my family have PD. One has MSA. My Mother woke up one day not being able to raise her arm to blow dry her hair. That was after she washed it. She complained of burning tongue. Vanderbilt Drs. Diagnosed her with PD. Guess at 73 I need to grow up.
Hi when you say burning.For almost a year I've had a burning pain that comes and goes above my right eye.The Nuero said it was I ce pick headaches.The medication only worked while taking it.But it came back.So maybe it's the parkinson s
I burn all over. Arms. Feet. Stomach. Numb face. Numb toes. Weak muscles. Balance problems. Vision. Muscle pain. Severe neck pain but that was diagnosed cervical radiculopathy. I first started to follow this group because of my Mother with PD as a caregiver.
I had a nuclear brain scan called a datscan to confirm the diagnosis.
You need a Neuro which is not a generic Neuro but a Parkinson movement specialist and the gold standard for diagnosis is DaTscan and possibly a MRI also.
Feon my experiance (father and Brother) it can only be diagnosed by evidence of symtoms and observation of physical changes. There is a few neurological diseases which are all in the same family PD, MS, MND etc
I have had so many MRI’s. I am 73. Since I was 46 when I lost my hearing. Very first Neurologist I went to said no MS. Ear Dr thought I did have it.
Experience with my Mother who had PD. He was wonderful. However they will not take you on without a referral of PD. They have a waiting list.
It depends on the person and the symptoms they are showing. My wife, for example, suddenly totally lost the use of her legs and was hospitalized. After two days of many tests to rule out MS, etc [no spinal lesions found], she was started on Sinemet. Within two doses, about 8-10 hours, her legs started functioning again. As it was explained to us, "the proof is in the pudding". Sinemet is, for the most part, a Parkinson's only medication. If it works, the diagnosis is usually considered complete. Everyone has a different story.
Nancy
1- Even if your doctor is correct and it is Nephropathy , he still should find and direct you to a neuroligist . that is associated with a hospital or university (most are) .
2- What type of Neurpathy is it ? They they have different causes and are treated differently.
3- If your doctor is a General Practitioner he is duty bound to pass this case to a specializing pysician .
4- All neurologists probably receive similar educations then some specialize or become more familiar with stroke, or PD or PD + or neuropathy but all of them will direct you to another if he needs backup.
I recently stopped going to a Neurologist that is also a movement disorder specialist and went back to a neurologist that treats a lot of stroke patients.
Education is only one attribute.
The Neurologist I saw said my brain did not look too bad. She did EMG and it was normal. MyDr said Ihave idiopathic Neuropathy. I have nerve damage in my neck. Heart trouble. Extreme HBP. To be honest Ihave seen so many Neurologist Drs that I just don’t want to go. They started. Oh off with sinemet and it worked for a few years. Eventually it quits working. Ido believe they have some better drugs now.
In the meantime why don’t you begin all the natural things that can help with Parkinson’s, because they are lifestyle changes that are good for you anyway! Whatever you have the following cannot hurt you and may help a lot:
Exercise. Take up walking for an 45 minutes - 1 hour each day.
Change your diet to exclude processed food, deep fried foods, and eat plenty of vegetables, berries, organic if you can. Eat less red meat, more fish, and have meat free days. It might also be a good idea to try giving up gluten and dairy for a while just in case you have an allergy or sensitivity as it could help you feel a bit better. There was a post the yesterday about the need to eat many cups of vegetables each day. This is very interesting:
healthunlocked.com/parkinso...
You are a Christian lady and prayer is also found to be beneficial, as well as intermittent fasting.
Neuropathy can be vitamin deficiency. Why don’t you try taking Hardy’s daily essential nutrients at the maintenance dose of 4 capsules a day. Ring up their free help line and talk to a product specialist. (See below) They have most of the nutrients required so if you are missing something in your diet it will help top it up. These helped my husband with PD a lot and I have my kids taking them now too at the low dose and it has helped with their mood and concentration. You may not have a Parkinson’s gene, but may have a gene that means you don’t process some vitamins properly even if you are getting enough from your diet and this may cause neuropathy.
Nancyntn,
You said you have the following symptoms :
1. muscle weakness +
2. arms feel like all strength is leaving them +
3. balance issue +
4. burning feeling +
5. hypertension +
6. muscle pain +
7. tremor +
8. nausea +
9. fatigue +
10. neck pain +
11. numbness
12. vision issue +
Everything listed above with a plus sign next to it, except # 11 are known side effects of Gabapentin. Number 11 and # 4 are consistent with neuropathy which you have already been diagnosed with.
rxlist.com/consumer_gabapen...
Art
Thank you. Guess Itis a lot better to have Neuropathy. They don’t have a lot of drugs to help it. Lyrics I believe is very expensive. I am on a lot of meds. For hp ,heart and cholesterol.a lot have these symptoms.
Agreed, there are not a lot of drugs to treat neuropathy effectively. There are probably more supplements and alternatives for that purpose than drugs. Some that come to mind are alpha lipoic acid, acetyl l carnitine, B-12, vitamin D and acupuncture to name just a few.
Art
I did not are for acupuncture at all! I take most of the supplements listed. I have not been taking calcium but tested low on my blood test. So I am taking it. I really get sick of swallowing pills. I bet you do to. I juice. I bought celery today. I also have been taking magnesium . I like massage therapy. Especially Chinese . They are the best. I did massage for 16 years.
I really recommend you try Hardy’s daily essential nutrients. Along with many vitamins and minerals it has the other things Art mentioned above and more. My husband was taking most of the individual components in it as separate supplements from all over the place but it wasn’t helping him and he had a hair analysis which said his arsenic levels were on the high end of the low range and I was concerned some of the vitamins he was on were probably made in China and may have had not very vigorous quality control. Hardy’s has everything in one product so is much easier to manage, and within 3 days the difference in him was miraculous. They are made in Canada and have been around for 15 years, are quality controlled, plus although they are expensive when you look at the cost of everything separately it is not so bad. Try it for a couple of months.
Look at the list of ingredients in it and I expect most of the things you are taking already might be in it.
Statins commonly cause muscle weakness and muscle pain. The benefits tend to be overstated and the risks understated. Here are couple of videos that are illuminating:
I had a DAT scan which is apparently the definitive diagnostic test
Is that a scan with contrast? If so that is what I had
No, it is a scan with a radioactive ingredient. It is also very expensive. It is not prescribed very often. I believe mine was $8,000 to $10,000. I don’t remember for sure. They don’t put you in a long tube. They wrap you in a papoose to prevent any movement including tremors. It is an open scan resembling a CT scan. It is a completely different machine. They spend more time positioning you on the table then the actual scan takes. I also had to drink something to protect my thyroid.
It’s the one where u r injected with radioactive dye and 4 hrs later have a scan
Not what you're looking for?
You may also like...
How I beat Parkinson’s
autophagy and Parkinson’s
Travelling with Parkinson’s
How does anyone overcome anxiety due to Parkinson’s
Music as medicine particularly in Parkinson’s
Parkinson’s question 
New Method May Help Diagnose Parkinson’s Using a Blood Test
Tapeworms and Parkinson’s
Young onset Parkinson’s patient 
