Rhinos are just fat unicorns.

I know a person who, if she sees a range of symptoms, she immediately adopts the illness. She does the same thing with side effects of medication. Kind of a sad way to live. On the other hand, I find it hard to believe I have PD even though it has been confirmed by 3 neurologists. I have had odd pains, cramps, etc for 30 years and have dealt with them without thinking they may have been pre-cursors of a degenerative brain condition. I never bothered to look any further than a diagnosis of fibromyalgia and even then, I didn't delve into it too deeply.

Ignorance is a required form of bliss when you are a PWP.

PD is an odd condition. It won't kill you, it will just make life a little more difficult as it progresses. Two years after diagnosis, I feel no differently than I did before the hammer fell, that is, if I haven't forgotten to take my medication, which I did yesterday. I missed two doses of the pills that fool my body into thinking it is making dopamine. As a result, my hand tremor became apparent and my right leg felt unduly weak, such that I was pretty unstable. After taking my meds the rest of the day and this morning, I am returning to normal. I bought a new phone to perk me up, a Galaxy Note 2, with an alarm feature to tell me when I should be medicating myself.

But, I am getting off topic. I was talking about symptoms and oddities. Here are some warning signals I know about:

1. a weak feeling in the hands. This feeling cannot be sufficiently described, but if you have it, you will know what I mean. Even without description, my GP referred me to a specialist. I wasn't going to keep the appointment until I developed a....
2. tremor in my right hand - but curiously, tremor is not always present in PD, even though the condition was called Shaking Palsy in the old days. It was my inability to control my tremor that caused me to keep that appointment with the specialist.
3. loss of one's sense of smell - which proved to be a problem when a sewer pipe below our basement floor broke and everyone but me could detect the faint odor. I thought they were nuts. They weren't.
4. loss of sense of taste. That really hasn't occurred to me; although, I do like spicy food more than ever before.
5. One arm doesn't swing when you walk. Again, this has not been a problem for me.
6. a leg drag - I only know of one PWP who has a lazy leg. I have not had to deal with that. I understand it is often a symptom of PD.
7. the Michael J. Fox finger dance. He went to a doctor after one finger kept jumping around. That only happens to me when I want to point to something, which I try to avoid.
8. loss of voice to the extent that you think everyone is going deaf when they say to you "What's that? What did you just say?"
9. ratchety movement when bending at the elbow. I have never felt it, but my wife, who is a physio, says it is present when she works on my arms.
10. depression - usually later in the progress of the condition. Not on my watch. I hope to avoid it.

Those are just some of the early symptoms and they are not always all present. As I said, PD is an odd condition. It is totally unpredictable since it differs from person to person both in symptoms and progression. Therefore, there is no use worrying about the past, it never was, and there is little to gain by worrying about the future, it cannot be predicted and as for the present, well, I forgot to get one for my wife's birthday.

Man: I have been seeing spots in front of my face all day.
Woman: Have you seen a doctor?
Man: No, just the spots.

A bientot.