The words echoed in my head as my neurologist said them. His tone was kind and non-judgemental. He had asked me what I thought was causing my symptoms, and I had replied confidently that I thought it was probably Essential Tremor. I had been doing a a lot of "Googling" and he knew it.
"Have you considered Parkinson's Disease?"
I said "uhhhhhhh..... no."
He said "well, I want you to go home, read up on Parkinson's Disease, then come back to see me and bring your husband with you." I said "O.K.". I thought "Sh%T!" My toes actually curled up and turned cold, like the Wicked Witch of the East.
I did what he said, and by the time my husband and I came to see him the next week, I was mentally prepared to accept his diagnosis. How in the world did my doctor know exactly the right approach to take with me? I don't know, but I'm profoundly grateful. It made it easier for me to accept it and get on with life.
I was kind of wondering how other people found out. I would love to hear your stories, and maybe post them (with your permission of course).
Let me know!
3 comments:
I was dealing with different symptoms since late 2004, but I decided to go see a neurologist at the beginning of 2007, after a lot of consultancy to "Dr. Google".
After a bunch of tests (negative all of them), the day before I went to the neurologist again I said to my wife: "If I'm lucky, it's PD".
Could have been much worse, but deep inside of me there was still a little flame of hope it shouldn't be that way.
"This is clearly a case of Early Onset PD", my neurologist said to me.
"Don't be scared, you won't die of it". he added right away.
Yeah, sure!
But my concern was another one: "How could I live with that?".
Nobody has the answer.
But I've learned by now that the best you can do.... is doing your best.
Somebody gave us a lifetime ticket for the suffering. Now it's our turn to find the tickets for happiness
See, this is the kind of thing I find very interesting; it's surprising to me that your neurologist said "don't be scared". Seems to me that it's perfectly natural to be little scared when you're told that you have an incurable disease that's going to make your life more and more difficult as time goes by. Don't get me wrong; I'm sure we're all profoundly grateful that it isn't something worse, like ALS, or MSA, or PSP or one of those sinister TLAs (three letter acronyms!). It's not a little thing, though and I think doctors should understand that fear is a completely normal reaction.
I really like what you say about finding the tickets to happiness. That's a very profound concept. We have to find our own way to happiness. Of course, that was always true, it's just that now we may have to alter course a little.
Thanks for sharing your experience and insight!
Marian
My father was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at 57.his symptoms were shuffling of feet,slurred speech, low volume speech, degradation of hand writing, horrible driving skills, right arm held at 45 degree angle, things were tough for me, but now he finally free from the disease with the help of total cure from ULTIMATE LIFE CLINIC, he now walks properly and all symptoms has reversed, he had trouble with balance especially at night, getting into the shower and exiting it is difficult,getting into bed is also another thing he finds impossible.we had to find a better solution for his condition which has really helped him a lot,the biggest helped we had was ultimate life clinic they walked us through the proper steps,i recommended this www.ultimatelifeclinic.com to anyone who needs there help.
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