September 23, 2013. I sat in a neurologist's office, three blocks from the college apartment I'd moved out of just 12 years before, as a doctor asked me, "What's your biggest fear?"
This was the culmination of two years of back pain, occasional, leading to consistent tremor, mild terror at the fact that it took me four times as long as a normal person to reach for a glass at the dinner table, and what someone once termed to me as "exhaustion on a cellular level."
I replied to the doctor without missing a beat. "That I have something incurable, and that I'll lose my independence." The doctor nodded solemnly once and said, "You have Parkinson's Disease." Sometimes I hate it when I'm right.
I was 36 years old, married to the best guy, in full stride of my career, a brand new nephew and a niece on the way, rounding out the contingent of wonderful kiddos I have the privileged to auntie. Amazing friends, a big life I was just learning to truly appreciate, lucky and blessed. Happily, every bit of that is still true, except the kids and I both keep getting older.
This is my story. I've written it in bits and pieces here and there, but this is where it will come together. The journey, the fundraising with HR Gives Back, the 365 and 1000 mile runs, the treatment plan, meeting Michael J Fox, and my potential path to DBS surgery later this year. If you're new, I'll explain those all in time. For now, welcome to the ride. It's bumpy, and unexpected, darkly funny, obviously funny, and sometimes funny only to me. And there's usually wine.
Thanks for being here.
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