Monday 28 January 2019

Symptoms Update - driving

Just a quick post to note a subtle change.

Recently I've been noticing that I've become a bit sharp on my braking action. Effectively, when I begin to push down on the brake pedal I'm applying more force or my foot movement is larger than it used to be. Once I've got the feedback from the braking action its all under control again. It has happened a few times over the last few weeks, it does not happen every time I operate the brake.

Moving my foot on to the brake pedal is no problem and my suspicion is that I'm starting to lose the finest motor control in my legs. Of course, I dont know if the problem is:

  • amplification of the instruction being sent from my brain to move my foot, 
  • additional force needed to begin to move a tight/spastic muscle
  • delay in relaxing the opposing muscle.
  • reduction in feedback from my foot back to my brain to confirm movement
  • degradation in my sense of proprioception (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception)

    Indeed I suspect that the true answer is that there some level of degradation in all aspects of this "instruction to move foot" communication. Its been interesting to think about the different elements of the apparently simple movement of my foot.

    My notes to self are to observe if my heel is on the floor of the car or not when this next happens, to observe if this happens at the beginning or end of journeys and to identify if there are any other factors which are affecting my level of attention to driving.

    No comments:

    Post a Comment