Good days, bad days with Parkinson’s
K: “David was working as a federal attorney, and he started to have trouble with executive functioning. He was always the go-to guy in the office, his supervisors said. He was the one who mentored all the young attorneys and managed a huge caseload. But he started having some problems keeping track of things. The telltale sign was the tremors.”
D: “When I was driving, my right hand would start fiddling on the steering wheel. I didn’t know what it was. It didn’t hurt. It wasn’t sore. I just noticed this shaking. Then I started losing my balance sometimes. I’d be walking outside and trip on a crack in the sidewalk. My feet weren’t quite lifting up high enough. And going up stairs, my right leg just wasn’t working like it should.”
K: “Right before we got married, he got the diagnosis of Parkinson’s. We see Dr. Jankovic at Baylor, who is world renowned for his research in the disease. He said that he usually tells his patients, ‘I have bad news and good news. The bad news is you have Parkinson’s. The good news is that it’s tremor-dominant.’ But he told us, ‘I have bad news and bad news. You have Parkinson’s disease and it’s gait-dominant.’ It’s a more rapidly advancing form of Parkinson’s. It’s more associated with Parkinson’s dimentia, which David has.”
D: “I still know how to do a lot of things, but I can’t always execute. And if we go to a movie, I’ll lose track of characters. I keep asking Kathleen, ‘Is he the one who was in the car?’ Or if I’m talking to somebody, I’ll sometimes lose track of what they’re talking about. It’s pretty frustrating. Then, the last year or two, I’ve started to fall. I’ll just be walking, and my leg will buckle. I’ll lose my balance.”
K: “It’s hard because for Parkinson’s patients, you’re not the same on any given day. You can have three great days, and you’re going, ‘Well, I don’t need to worry about using the electric scooter because I’m doing just fine with this walker.’ And all of a sudden, out of the blue, bam, not a good day.”
D: “Until I get up and start moving each morning, I don’t know if it will be a good day or a bad day.”
— Kathleen Sydnor and David Whitcomb
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