Part 1: In Which Kate Explains What She’s Up To

Is it PD or is it ME? is a series of blog posts in which I try to think through the symptoms and changes, physical, emotional, and cognitive, that PD causes. PD comes with many, many symptoms. Some symptoms mimic the ordinary aging process, other symptoms are not caused by PD at all, but have other causes, including normal aging. Still other symptoms are the effects of the many medications that PD patients must take. Many of my symptoms—including sleep disturbances and a very limited sense of smell—have been present since childhood. Perhaps they are not PD at all. Or perhaps I have had undiagnosed PD since I was about six or even since birth. At least some researchers think PD is a “developmental disease” rather than a disease of aging, meaning it begins quite early—although we may be diagnosed until symptoms become visible in a tremor or other debilitating sign. Bear with me as I try to sort this out with the help of my wonderful movement disorder specialists at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities.