A very strange thing began to happen when I blew my nose. Instead of air rushing out through my nose, a strange noise would come from the back of my throat. It was as if the muscles there had weakened. Very odd. I didn’t think about it too much and definitely not something to bother the doctor with.
Anyway, I booked to see the local osteopath who told me that my left shoulder problem was due to a sub-acromial bursa, and this could be relieved by massage, manipulation, ultrasound treatment and exercise. This regime seemed to bring a bit of relief after about six sessions, but I’ll always wonder whether the problem was actually an early indication of MND affecting my left arm – something that came back with a vengeance two years later.
Around the same time tiredness was getting more and more noticeable, and I was definitely running out of energy. After a blood test my GP increased my daily dosage of thyroxine (that I’d been on for twenty years) from 175 mcg to 200 mcg. This is a pretty big dose, and it didn’t really help.