Fatigue verses tiredness

If asked, can you differentiate between being tired and suffering fatigue? There is in fact a huge difference and the causes are not the same. You may have slept a good six hours at night, but awake still feeling tired. Fatigue is as if someone has removed your batteries, and  sometimes the fatigue is so bad I feel as if I could collapse. This is when I usually look extremely pale and unwell, prompting my husband to tell me to go and rest. Even though I may lay down in bed, unable to fall asleep, the mere fact of resting in bed, one would have thought should revitalize me, but it doesn't. I get up and the fatigue is still present.

Every activity takes energy, and as strange as this may sound,  even something as simple as breathing, a Parkinson's patient expends more energy than a healthy individual. This is due to Parkinson's affecting the muscles in the chest and diaphragm. Every simple task requires a great deal of effort on the part of the Parkinson patient. Fatigue is often dismissed by doctors and not much attention is paid to this debilitating symptom, for it is far less visually disturbing than dyskinesia or poor gait. Yet many patients find fatigue is one of the most disruptive symptoms of Parkinson's.

It's strange how some patients thrive on exercise which appears to help alleviate fatigue, whilst others feel their fatigue is made worse by too much activity. It's a thin line to tread and a hard one to find the right balance. We are all aware that to maintain mobility, some form of exercise is necessary, but caution must be observed if the effects of too much activity become detrimental to one's overall well-being. Fatigue might also be part of Parkinson's disease itself, or possibly as in my case, I often attempt to do things I believe I can, when in reality, physically I can no longer achieve. Trying to describe fatigue to a doctor or someone in the family, is very difficult, as what I perceive, may very well be completely different for someone else. In other words, the many symptoms of Parkinson's make it very hard to diagnose correctly, ascertaining the cause of fatigue, for it is a complex disease. It's no wonder that many people without personal experience of Parkinson's know little about this disease. There is simply so much to learn and understand.