Sam - Fighting PD

I have Parkinson's disease and im here to share my story and fight this disease with everything I have got!!

I first noticed a tremor in the little finger of my left hand when I was 19. I ignored it at first thinking it was probably a sports injury or trapped nerve, as at the time I was going to the gym and swimming 5 days a week. I also trained in martial arts 6 days a week for at least 4 hours every day. I started feeling really stiff and tired after training, a lot more than normal; I just thought this was due to the amount of sport I was doing every week, and that I was just overdoing it a bit. About 2 months later, my mum asked me if I was OK. 'What do you mean?' I replied. She told me she had noticed that my walking was not so much a walk but a shuffle and I was hunched over. I looked like an old lady walking down the road, not a 19 year old just starting out in life. She had also noticed that all my movements were slow and that I was dragging my left leg. Eventually, after I had completely worn out the side of my trainers, and the fact that I could not stop tremoring or even move normally, I decided to go and see the doctor. The fact that my mum had been nagging me for the last 5 months to go to the doctors, also probably had something to do with it.

So off I go to the doctor. After lots of poking, prodding and blood tests, I was referred to a neurologist, who said two little words that were to have a massive impact on the rest of my life. Those words were 'Parkinson's Disease'. By this time the tremor had spread to my hand and not only was I shuffling, but I was also very stiff and moving very slowly. The neurologist did all the poking, prodding and blood tests that my doctor had done, plus a few more and a million questions to get a full medical history. I also had MRI scans and tests to rule out just about everything you can imagine. This happened over the course of 2 years.

By the time I was 21, I had 2 neurologists. One doctor said I definitely had PD, but the second doctor did not believe that someone as young as I was at the time, could possibly have PD. Eventually I went to a third neurologist who also thought it was PD. My doctor started me on Parkinson’s medication to ultimately confirm the diagnosis. The drugs worked.

Since then I have gone on to complete and gain a PhD in chemistry and a 1st class LLB law degree. So here I am, its 2009, im now 28 years old and have been living with Parkinson’s for over 9 years. Without medication I cannot function, but with the meds comes the side-effects. It's a raw deal, but I decided it was time to stand up and fight. So look out PD, because here I come!!

"You can give Parkinson's all the room it needs, but never give it all the room it wants!" -

Sam Clarke 2009