As a early onset Parkinson's patient, I want more people to be aware of the illness.
I've had it for about ten years, and I have a lot of the typical symptoms now, but my diagnosis came after I went to the doctor with a "frozen shoulder".
Many people mistake my dyskinesia (random writhing and twitching) for the actual disease, but it is in fact a side effect of the medications I take. If you see me very still it generally means that the meds are not working very well at that moment, for a variety of possible reasons that nobody really seems to have a handle on.
I take the most effective drug available for controlling Parkinson's symptom's, a drug that was first introduced in 1967. There's a lot of research money going to Parkinson's disease now, and some new treatments coming out soon - I hope to talk about them as I continue this blog.
