Life with PD is a challenge every day with everything you do.

That is a strong statement. Let me explain.

Rolling over in bed, brushing your teeth, shaving your legs, blow drying your hair, putting on a shirt or coat, driving, dialing the phone, unscrewing the bottle cap, cutting your meat, going up and down stairs, walking through a narrow area, turning around, folding laundry, typing, signing your name these everyday tasks are all a bit more challenging for me. And for others that are more progressed, these tasks are very challenging. When your day is filled with all these challenges, even if small, you use more energy and more mental focus to do them. This makes you more fatigued, and maybe more irritable and frustrated.

Each day, I keep a positive attitude.

Tremors are common and that is what most people think PD is. The “Shaky Disease” for “old people”. I do not have a visible tremor, but I feel an inner tremor. It is difficult to describe, but it’s like electricity inside your body all the time and you can’t get rid of it. You want to just stretch, move, shake it out. But you can’t. There is a constant vibrating electricity inside my body.

Each day, I keep a positive attitude. Exercise has helped.

Rigidity, stiffness. Every muscle on my right side feels tight. They won’t move. Even stretching and massage doesn’t make it feel “stretched” and loose. PD is not a muscular disease, it is neurological. The chemical dopamine is not produced, which is needed for the synapses to pass the signal to the muscles. I do an action, like finger taps, or toe taps, and after 6-8 taps…………………...it just stops. In mid-movement, it just stops.

Each day, I keep a positive attitude. Exercise has helped.

I walk like I am falling forward. If I am carrying something heavy, I fall forward. It is like a string attached to your forehead and the other end is about 5 feet in front of you on the ground. It is pulling you forward and down, and you can’t catch yourself.