Parkinson’s Disease and Me

Parkinson’s Disease and Me

By Garland Davis

It was nine years ago that I diagnosed myself with Parkinson’s Disease.

I stopped for a beer at a neighbor’s house while walking my dog on a Friday evening. My right hand was shaking. I showed it to him and said, “Look at this.”

He asked, “Have you ever been checked for Parkinson’s?” He had seen it before; his dad had had the disease.

Of course, I hadn’t been checked. I had heard of the disease but my knowledge of it was limited to knowing that Michael J. Fox, Muhammad Ali, and (probably) Hitler had the condition. I spent that entire Friday night and well into Saturday on the computer researching PD. I read scientific papers that I barely understood. As I read, I more and more recognized symptoms that had plagued me for two or three years.

I was a runner normally…