“No way.”
Although I have been known on occasion to let a fat, juicy expletive pass my lips, his eyes were so gentle and his tone so kind when the doctor said, "this is Parkinson's", I just couldn't.
"Shit, shit, shit" is what I thought. "No way" is what I said.
Doctors look for a couple of the four hallmarks of Parkinson's: tremor, weakness, slowness and stiffness, before making a diagnosis and I have all four. My tremor is in my left hand but after forty year of keyboard work, I assumed it was just the mother of all carpal tunnel syndromes. I got an armrest and a bottle of ibuprofen and figured I was good to go.
I've always been kind of a klutz, so much so that, through the mercy of my sixth grade teacher, who couldn't bear to see me picked last again, she made me permanent scorekeeper. I'm also the mom of grown twin sons so I've spent many years rushing to get too much done in too little time. When I started stumbling a bit more regularly than usual, a little self-scolding about single-tasking was my prescription.
Did I mention the love-hate relationship I've had for forty years with computers? (Think IBM System/32.) Forty years is a whole bunch keystrokes. So, no surprise, my hands are stiff and sore all the time, right? Who hasn't heard of arthritis?
At first I just noticed the tremor resting in bed at night once in a while. Then, it would come and go at my desk when I'd be concentrating on work. Soon it was happening enough and I was self-conscious enough about it that I was asking my teammates if they noticed it. (Of course they didn't until I asked.) But, what really creeped me out was when I noticed that I only swung one arm when I walked; the other arm was tucked up on my chest with my hand in a fist trembling away like l my teeth when I was six with wet mittens and snow in my boots.
Although I have been known on occasion to let a fat, juicy expletive pass my lips, his eyes were so gentle and his tone so kind when the doctor said, "this is Parkinson's", I just couldn't.
"Shit, shit, shit" is what I thought. "No way" is what I said.
Doctors look for a couple of the four hallmarks of Parkinson's: tremor, weakness, slowness and stiffness, before making a diagnosis and I have all four. My tremor is in my left hand but after forty year of keyboard work, I assumed it was just the mother of all carpal tunnel syndromes. I got an armrest and a bottle of ibuprofen and figured I was good to go.
I've always been kind of a klutz, so much so that, through the mercy of my sixth grade teacher, who couldn't bear to see me picked last again, she made me permanent scorekeeper. I'm also the mom of grown twin sons so I've spent many years rushing to get too much done in too little time. When I started stumbling a bit more regularly than usual, a little self-scolding about single-tasking was my prescription.
Did I mention the love-hate relationship I've had for forty years with computers? (Think IBM System/32.) Forty years is a whole bunch keystrokes. So, no surprise, my hands are stiff and sore all the time, right? Who hasn't heard of arthritis?
At first I just noticed the tremor resting in bed at night once in a while. Then, it would come and go at my desk when I'd be concentrating on work. Soon it was happening enough and I was self-conscious enough about it that I was asking my teammates if they noticed it. (Of course they didn't until I asked.) But, what really creeped me out was when I noticed that I only swung one arm when I walked; the other arm was tucked up on my chest with my hand in a fist trembling away like l my teeth when I was six with wet mittens and snow in my boots.
That's when I called the doctor for an appointment.
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