About me.

My story.

Freezing of gait is one of the more debilitating symptom of Parkinson’s disease. I have been diagnosed with young onset Parkinson’s disease since 2001 at the age of 32. I have had many of the common symptoms of Parkinson disease but the worst of them has to be freezing of gait. For most of my symptoms like small handwriting and soft voice , an OT and speech therapist were able to help me minimise the symptoms. However freezing of gait is the nastiest of all the symptoms.

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My Progression.

In the early years of my disease freezing of gait was a mere inconvenience and embarrassment. I would stop in mid step but often I could recover quickly. But as the years slowly progressed the symptom deteriorated. I began freezing a lot more frequently to the point that I was not able to function at all. Simple tasks like walking just a short distance between rooms at home became impossible. My walking became a shuffle and I would freeze a lot. Sometimes my legs would buckle under me and I would fall on my knees. My knees were constantly bruised. A simple journey to the bathroom which would normally take less than a minute would end up taking several agonising minutes. The trip would be riddled with stops and starts and many falls. My world was slowly closing in on me and I was getting extremely frustrated. I wasn’t able to take escalators nor cross roads. And this became a major hassle whenever I had to go out of the house. I had lost one of my most favourite activity, walking.

My Doctors.

My neurologist suggested that I try (Deep Brain Stimulation) DBS but he could not give me any assurances that it would help relieve the symptom even though he sounded very optimistic. I was reluctant to try it out because of the lack of assurances. It sounded like an awful amount of risk to take and not know if it worked. Having said this however, I must say that everybody is different and each person should consider all the options available to them. My case was an atypical case because of the way my body responded to the Parkinson’s medication. Increasing my dosage would cause me to freeze up more than to relieve me so I could only take a minimal amount of dopamine. So there is no way of predicting how I would respond to DBS.

My aim.

Because of this, I was determined to find a solution for FOG, especially one that did not involve brain surgery. So, I started thinking about the problem in 2010 and through a long process of trial, error and discovery I began to understand the mechanics of walking especially the nature of freezing of gait and what causes it. Because I am not professionally trained in human anatomy nor a medical professional, I can only share with you what I observed as a lay person and relay to you what works for me. But I sincerely believe I have solved the mystery of FOG which has plagued me for so many years. As a result of this I am walking more freely, though not entirely free of freezing but I canunderstand it well enough to say that my life has seen a great improvement due to the fact that I am walking a lot better. I want to share this discovery in the hope that it may help some people gain back their lives.

However I would like to add a caution for anyone trying what is suggested by this website, please always consult your specialist or doctors to make sure it is safe for you to try this. Do not try this if you have problems with balance or have any other gaiting problems. The solution suggested here is only for a very specific problem related to FOG.

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