Maria is 58, a retired school administrator, and one of the first people to test early TremorZen prototypes. Eleven years after her ET diagnosis, she describes the decade before tracking in one word: guessing. This is her story, told mostly in her own words, shared with her permission.
The guessing years
"Every appointment went the same way," Maria says. "My neurologist would ask how the last six months had been, and I would honestly not know what to say. Worse? Better? It depended which week you asked about. I once told her things were stable, and my husband looked at me like I had lost my mind. He remembered the months differently than I did."
"The worst part was the decisions. Should I skip the second coffee? Was the new dose doing anything? Everyone had opinions. I had anecdotes. You cannot make decisions with anecdotes, so mostly I made none."
Week one: baseline shock
Maria started with two-minute daily check-ins, a guided hold test in the morning and one in the evening. "The first surprise was how different my mornings and evenings were. Evenings were nearly double. I had a vague feeling about that, but seeing the number made it real."
Month two: the caffeine verdict
Maria ran the experiment most of us only argue about. Two weeks of her normal two coffees, then two weeks with one, measurements throughout. "Everyone was sure coffee was my problem. It was barely visible in my data. You know what was visible? Sleep. Every night under six hours showed up the next day like clockwork."
"So I stopped feeling guilty about coffee and started protecting my sleep. That is a trade I would never have made by intuition, because the coffee advice is louder."
Month three: a different appointment
At her next follow-up, Maria brought her chart. "My neurologist looked at three months of data and said, well, this changes the conversation. We spent the whole visit on an actual plan instead of reconstructing my memory. She adjusted my timing, not my dose, based on the morning-evening pattern. It was the most productive appointment in a decade."
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Join the waitlist →What Maria would tell you
"Start before you feel ready. You do not need to understand the graphs on day one. Just measure, the same way, every day. In a month you will know something about your own body that eleven years of living in it did not teach me."
The content on this blog is for general informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and does not replace consultation with a qualified healthcare professional. Always talk to your clinician before making changes to your care. If you think you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or your local emergency number.
