If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on.

The title is a quote from Lance Armstrong, the drug induced cycling mavin and the winner of 7 consecutive Tours de France. He must have been off the juice at the time he said it because it is quite sensible and I have taken it to heart. If I worried about walking, I would never walk. However, I have kept walking since my fall, without incident and exercise is the only known method that might slow the progression of PD so I have to do it. It has become an obsession and I can't imagine quitting.

I finally got an explanation of the phenomena. For awhile there, I thought it must have been an attack of hypochondria, but yesterday, after seeing the dermatologist, I went to my GP and in passing, I mentioned the weird walk and demonic jog that resulted in a fall.

"That is a symptom of PD,"he said. "PD causes your body to try to catch up with your center of gravity, so you bend forward and have to walk faster and faster until you fall".

OK, why didn't my 2 neurologists tell me that? In fact, one of them told me that PD doesn't present like that and I should see my family doctor. He had me scared that something else might be present in addition to the PD.

Anyway, I went on a PD forum and got the following advice:

1. Keep saying in your mind 1-2,1-2. Or a stick might help you.
2. Walk like you are marching.
3. Stop walking, turn around and face the direction you want go in, then make the first step a big step.
4. count while walking

I don't know where I would be without the internet. Just knowing other people around the world who have PD, brings me some solace and the fact I can get advice from PWP who have been there, done that, is invaluable.

"The Internet has always been, and always will be, a magic box." Marc Andreesson, a founder of Netscape.

Life would be so much easier if God would just give us the source code!