PatientsLikeMe ™

I've lived in the SF Bay Area all my life.  Graduated from Gunn High School in Palo Alto in 1978, kicked around doing odd jobs for a couple of years, then started taking college electronics courses at night because I was working as an assembler and wanted to know more about what I was building.  In 1984, my digital electronics teacher got me hired in to Lockheed in Palo Alto, and I fell in love, both with my job and with my future husband who happened to be working there too.  I've been in love with both ever since.
  When I started having Parkinson's symptoms, I knew something was wrong, but couldn't put my finger on it, and neither could my doctor.  I had a slight heart arythmia; went to a cardiologist.  Had a cardiological MRI; everything was fine.  Had GI symptoms and anemia; went to a gastroenterologist.  Had a colonoscopy & upper GI endoscopy, everything was fine.  Had fatigue, dizziness, slight tremor and vertigo; went to a neurologist.  Had a brain MRI; everything was fine.  Meanwhile, I had memory and cognition problems and I kept falling and running into things.  Broke toes on 4 or 5 separate occasions.  Finally, the tremor in my left hand got suddenly worse and the muscles felt clenched and taut all the time.  I found that my left hand and arm moved very slowly; I had trouble playing my ukulele. My walk was a bit strange; people kept commenting on it.  All of this brought me to the neurologist again.  He knew I had been researching things on the internet and he asked me what I was thinking it was.  I said either essential tremor or MS that didn't show on the MRI.  He looked at me kindly and said "have you thought of Parkinson's?"  I was floored.  I told him I thought that the MRI ruled that out.  He said no, it doesn't show on MRIs.  He said I should go home, research Parkinson's on the internet and come back in a week and bring my husband with me.  It was exactly the right approach for me.  I came to grips with the idea that I might have Parkinson's on my own, so when he gave me the diagnosis, I was as ready as I could be.  It was still a shock, though.
   This will be an interesting journey, and I think I'm strong enough to face it.  Well, I hope I am anyway, because you either keep walking as long as you can, or you give up and sit by the trail.  I want to keep going and keep healthy as long as possible, and enjoy my life.  Besides, I want to be ready when they find a cure, right?