My praise to Leonore Gordon for coping with this disease for 19 years. Her success should provide inspiration to everyone with this disease. This program is enlightening for me & hopefully everyone watching this.
This was very good information. We have learned so much from the Parkinson's Disease Care New York. My spouse experienced apathy prior to his diagnosis. Once he got a diagnosis we able to understand and make sense of some of the non motor symptoms like apathy. It clearly was not depression.
I was diagnosed 16 yrs ago with hardly no tremors, I have extreme stiffness. In the last 3 or so years I started losing excitement/interest. I'm not sad I just don't care or so any emotion. My Mom and 2 brothers passed away and I didn't feel sadness which freaked out some of my siblings at my coldness. I used to be completely over the moon for Disney World, Christmas, vacations. I like going and am glad I did it but I feel no excitement. My GP put me on antidepressants for 3 years and I finally told my new GP it never did anything for me. I also got a new PD doctor who's first opinion was I don't have Parkinson's after over 6+ doctor's did. I also got the feeling he thought I was making this all up because I didn't show the "Signs" of PD.
It's so frustrating to me to listen to doctors and the first thing they say is "We don't have any drugs for this. All we can do is recommend lifestyle interventions." Why does everything with doctors have to be about drugs? I'm looking at this poor lady with dyskinesia that is a side effect of levodopa. That isn't Parkinson's causing her to move like that. We need more than just drugs. Every time we get a drug, it fixes one thing and breaks two others. I have hope that one day we'll overcome Parkinson's for myself and others, but I certainly don't expect it will come from a pill.
