PN and handwriting …

what in the heck is PN?! I just landed here... something ELSE I must have?! Because like the others I ALSO did drafting and have a lifetime in the commercial arts and my handwriting is HORRIBLE. I can start okay but within minutes I have to slow down and take extra care. And then eventually stop. My hands seem to want to go faster than my fingers allow. It gets staccato looking. Like my fine motor skills are going. I've had cervical surgery and I have no neuropathy in my hands. No numbness or tingling. Just seems like I am reverting to baby hands where the development for fine motor skills is abandoning me. I am 67. thank you.

Good morning, @fatalfflaw, @harley22

My handwriting has deteriorated so slowly that for the longest time, I hadn’t even noticed. I recall the first time a doctor (my neurologist), in discussing my PN, asked if I’d seen a change in my handwriting. The question took me by surprise. I did what I often do when taken by surprise: I play defense. ‘Hell, no,’ I told him. ‘My handwriting is as good today as when I was a child.’ Of course, it wasn’t. It was only in the wake of the doctor’s question that I began to notice how much my handwriting had deteriorated.

An unanswered question remains: Is my handwriting worsening due only to getting older? Or only to my PN? Or to a combo of both? ‘Tis a mystery. 🙂

Cheers!
Ray (@ray666)

Good morning, @dlydailyhope

I, too, have an intrusion involving my cervical spine. Still, the neurosurgeon with whom I spoke was reasonably sure the intrusion was marginal (he called it 'borderline') and, so long as I didn't have any other symptoms (other than my wonky way of walking due to my PN), he did not advise surgery. For now, I'm doing a once-a-year check-in with him.

My very best to you!

Cheers!
Ray (@ray666)

@njed Ed – That list of 'uh ohs' gets longer and longer, doesn't it, Ed? Thanks (or NO thanks)to sepsis, I've had to add a few additional 'uh ohs,' unrelated to my PN. I've always enjoyed writing letters by hand, on paper, using a good ('good,' but not expensive) fountain pen. A number of my distant friends got pleasure out of replying in kind, using all sorts of interesting stationery. Then, when I noticed my handwriting going all bonkers, going up and downhill, turning simple penmanship into lines of indecipherable curly-q's, I purchased a light table and taped a sheet of lined paper to the glass to give me visible guidelines. When I noticed that I could no longer stay within my visible guidelines, I chucked the whole rig and turned to MS Word. Numbers? Oh, numbers! Oh, lordy, no! A few days ago, a handyman doing some work on my house asked if possibly I could pay him with a check. I must have torn up two or three checks before I had one that looked like I was paying the handyman the amount I owed him. Avoiding writing numbers by hand has been on my 'uh oh' list for quite some time. – Ray (@ray666)

@ray666
You may want to talk to your neurosurgeon about cervical myelopathy. The symptoms can include headaches, neck/shoulder pain/muscle tension, swallowing/speaking, arm/hand/finger strength, numbness, bladder/bowel control, and walking (like wearing heavy boots). I have had all of these symptoms before having ACDF surgery c5-c6 to stop the progression of the spinal cord compression injury. I was 52 at the time and now 55 and had some improvement of symptoms but do have residual permanent injury/symptoms.

Yet another draftsman. Same problems but derived from ANS. I was always involved in industrial desighn, industrial instrumentation and watchmaking. Now the hand writing is less than required, the dexterity is often missing and tieing shoe laces can get difficult. As for shirt buttons, gave them up years ago. It is beyond frustrating and more infuriating the hands not doing what I know they can. For me the hand eye co ordination is often missing but curiously given 2 pairs of tweezers the brain remembers what it can do and does. It applies the right amount of pressure to manipulate most everythning I ever could. I tie knots better with tweezers than without. I can not pick up a watch battery unless I have tweezers in my hands, controlling a computer mouse is another problem area these days.
Yes it is not life threatening but it is the tip of the iceberg for me, one that is getting ever larger with time.

I have often wondered about PN and handwriting. But since I also have Dupuytren's contracture in my right hand, I never know which is causing the penmanship issue. My grammar school nuns would not be pleased with either. For her, she would be saying, Charles you can do better than that.

Hello,@dlydailyhope

The neurosurgeon and I have met twice in the past year, and each time, we talked pretty extensively about all possible symptoms, including what he referred to as ‘trace’ symptoms (barely bothersome), none of which I had (or have). The most crippling symptom which I lack––a lacking for which I’ll be forever grateful!––is pain. I only have an unsteady way of standing when I stand and a rubberized way of walking when I walk.

My lack of pain, acute numbness, tingling, and other more commonly reported PN symptoms are probably to blame for my having let so many years go by before seeing a neurologist.

Ray (@ray666)

Hi, Charles

I attended a public school. I was exposed to nuns once a week when I attended what we called 'release time,' when students of different faiths trotted off to their different places of worship for an hour's theological study. From what I remember, the public school teachers and the nuns, they were a match when it came to patroling on perfect penmanship. I can still see in my mind's eye that long horizontal chart above the blackboard displaying how upper and lower case letters were to be formed if you were to write well. What a devil of a challenge one of those charts would be to me today! 🙂

Ray

Me too Ray. One of the nun's always said that IU wrote like a left hander.....and I have never figured out what she meant. brotherchuckles80