I'm pretty freaked out at the moment. A good friend of mine -- from the UK, no passport, no papers, no real money, no insurance -- is in the hospital right now b/c his legs went completely numb on him yesterday morning. He has since recovered some movement but still has great difficulty maintaining his balance and basically cannot walk. No physical trauma seems to have caused this episode, at least not directly and immediately.
For as long as I've known him, however, which has been for roughly two years, he has had this very weird gait. I'm now wondering if this is the so-called "shuffling gait" that people with Parkinson's disease have. He's also had a couple episodes, all within past 8 months, of losing his balance completely and falling forward or backward. And he has chronic back and leg pain.
I had attributed his ailments to injuries that he may have sustained while working as furniture mover a few years back. He said that he once had his foot run over by a moving van (not sure if I believe that one!). He also told me that he had a couple bullets go through his legs when he was young
But frankly, I never gave his physical problems much thought. So he had a strange gait, and I thought "whatever." Part of his charm.
Now I'm sitting here wondering why he's in the hospital right now. And I can't help but think Parkinson's. And I'm starting to flash on Richard Pryor. My friend is not a cocaine addict in the sense that some other people I know are, wherein they go on massive 72-to-96-hour binges and then suddenly crash and sleep very fitfully for like 48-to-72 hours and constantly twitch. But that said, he probably does cocaine 6 or 7 nights a week, not loads of cocaine (b/c his only jobs are djing jobs at small bars, and he more or less relies on the good will of people like me, i.e., he's a serial sofa surfer, and hits my place about once a week), but pretty much every night. A couple beers, a couple drinks, a few lines. And he has a fair share of benders, I suppose, but benders are all relative (i.e., my bender is not your bender). And he's been living like this for past 20 years. He's 35. And I'm sure back in the 90s he knew plenty of pop stars and rock stars to give him free drugs, or at least he claims he got tons of free drugs . . . . That is, he's very charming, has no problem making friends, definite 24-hour party person type figure, so he's certainly done lots of drugs despite probably never really being able to afford such drugs . . . . Says that he used to deal lots of coke, but again, I'm not sure if such claim is true or merely part of his self-mythology . . . . That is, I don't necessarily believe anything that he says about his past . . . . So when he talks about the excesses of his past, I tend to discount such talk as boasting and self-mythology
But now I'm wondering if he indeed has done such quantities of cocaine over the years that he could have the same syndrome as afflicted Richard Pryor
Is anybody here knowledgeable about the neurological effects of long-term cocaine use, especially as relates to Parkinson's disease or some such other syndrome?
Ecstasy is of course the other drug he's done lots of -- but many years ago in terms of big-time use
He himself thinks that cocaine is culprit -- and even told me last night that snorting cocaine has recently caused him to have balance problems and numbness problems almost immediately after snorting
and he was doing cocaine the other night, of course, when he's legs went completely numb
again, he's since recovered some movement and control of the legs, i.e., he was able to get on to a scale to be weighed at hospital last night
and doctors have yet to determine what's wrong with him, let alone say why he has the condition or what his prognosis is
i am of course speculating when i say Parkinson's caused by chronic cocaine use
but again, is anyone here knowledgeable about this kind of thing?
For as long as I've known him, however, which has been for roughly two years, he has had this very weird gait. I'm now wondering if this is the so-called "shuffling gait" that people with Parkinson's disease have. He's also had a couple episodes, all within past 8 months, of losing his balance completely and falling forward or backward. And he has chronic back and leg pain.
I had attributed his ailments to injuries that he may have sustained while working as furniture mover a few years back. He said that he once had his foot run over by a moving van (not sure if I believe that one!). He also told me that he had a couple bullets go through his legs when he was young
But frankly, I never gave his physical problems much thought. So he had a strange gait, and I thought "whatever." Part of his charm.
Now I'm sitting here wondering why he's in the hospital right now. And I can't help but think Parkinson's. And I'm starting to flash on Richard Pryor. My friend is not a cocaine addict in the sense that some other people I know are, wherein they go on massive 72-to-96-hour binges and then suddenly crash and sleep very fitfully for like 48-to-72 hours and constantly twitch. But that said, he probably does cocaine 6 or 7 nights a week, not loads of cocaine (b/c his only jobs are djing jobs at small bars, and he more or less relies on the good will of people like me, i.e., he's a serial sofa surfer, and hits my place about once a week), but pretty much every night. A couple beers, a couple drinks, a few lines. And he has a fair share of benders, I suppose, but benders are all relative (i.e., my bender is not your bender). And he's been living like this for past 20 years. He's 35. And I'm sure back in the 90s he knew plenty of pop stars and rock stars to give him free drugs, or at least he claims he got tons of free drugs . . . . That is, he's very charming, has no problem making friends, definite 24-hour party person type figure, so he's certainly done lots of drugs despite probably never really being able to afford such drugs . . . . Says that he used to deal lots of coke, but again, I'm not sure if such claim is true or merely part of his self-mythology . . . . That is, I don't necessarily believe anything that he says about his past . . . . So when he talks about the excesses of his past, I tend to discount such talk as boasting and self-mythology
But now I'm wondering if he indeed has done such quantities of cocaine over the years that he could have the same syndrome as afflicted Richard Pryor
Is anybody here knowledgeable about the neurological effects of long-term cocaine use, especially as relates to Parkinson's disease or some such other syndrome?
Ecstasy is of course the other drug he's done lots of -- but many years ago in terms of big-time use
He himself thinks that cocaine is culprit -- and even told me last night that snorting cocaine has recently caused him to have balance problems and numbness problems almost immediately after snorting
and he was doing cocaine the other night, of course, when he's legs went completely numb
again, he's since recovered some movement and control of the legs, i.e., he was able to get on to a scale to be weighed at hospital last night
and doctors have yet to determine what's wrong with him, let alone say why he has the condition or what his prognosis is
i am of course speculating when i say Parkinson's caused by chronic cocaine use
but again, is anyone here knowledgeable about this kind of thing?
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