My name is Shan. I am 36 years old and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s this year.
I am married and have a two year old son. I work full time managing a large technical department at a US National Laboratory.
I love learning and taking in as much information as possible. I have a PhD and thoroughly enjoy doing research of any kind. I often spend my free time deep diving into new subjects of interest.
I also love exercise and have spent the last several years competing in strength sports.
I am working on getting more involved with the Parkinson’s community (especially YOPD) and connecting with other people with Parkinson’s as much as possible.
That is a great question. I probably should have mentioned that in my introduction (which sound a lot more like a dating site profile, ha ha).
I have been having lots of little issues for years that no one could figure out: digestive issues, vestibular issues, temperature regulation issues, fatigue, etc. I also had pain and stiffness in my left shoulder, and my left arm seemed to tire much faster then my right. I had shoulder surgery, but those symptoms did not go away after I healed.
Over the last year or so, my left hand has seemed clumsier than my right. I also noticed it was slow to respond. It was like my brain would tell my hands to do something and my left hand would respond noticably slower than my right. I had also been having nearly constant painful muscle contractions (that I now know to be dystonia).
Eventually, my left pinky started to tremor wildly, especially when my stress was high. When I asked my GP about it, she sent me to a neurologist. She also noted that my left arm wasn’t swinging when I walked.
The neurologist immediately told me that at my age it was extremely unlikely to be Parkinson’s so we did about a million tests to rule everything else out. Finally, she gave me Carbidopa-Levodopa and said come back in three weeks.
I expected that, if the meds were going to work, I would know over the next couple of weeks. To my surprise, 30ish minutes after the first pill pretty much every symptom I had was gone. My next visit got me a Parkinson’s diagnosis and a referral to an MDS.
