I have Parkinson's Disease and I am writing this page to give you my symptoms and what I am doing about it hoping it might help someone have a better life.

Looking back I believe I started the disease about 12 years ago. The very first symptom I had was the lose of smell. At the time I went through a cat scan of the brain and it was clear. The doctors thought I had a Brain tumor and were puzzled when the scan came back clear.

I was starting to sluff my feet when walking and also having problems with my balance when going down stairs that did not have a railing. Also I was having pain in my feet so I had tests for arthritis and again it came back clear so it was not that. Fortunately I was referred to a university hospital clinic consisting of a forum of specialists. They eventually said they thought I had Parkinson's and told me there was no test to confirm it. They gave me medication  and I immediately saw an improvement in my walking. I went through a battery of tests again and they said there was a big improvement so I definitely had Parkinson's. I was being given Levocarb one pill three times a day.

I was also diagnosed with Nuropathy of the feet and now they think it was caused by my immune system attacking the ends of my nerves. I will talk about this later in another page.

 My doctor added Mirapex which helped me further. A little later the Levocarb was increased to two pills three times a day and I noticed a real big improvement in my walking.

I am now on a University research program and I will inform you of the results as I get them. I am very hopeful that they will find something to either cure or help the disease

The most recent study that I was involved in was to take caffeine which was to cut down the drowsy feeling you can get with Parkinson's. About a week after I started the trial I noticed a fantastic improvement in my sleepiness and also what seemed a fringe benefit as I noticed my mobility was also much improved much to the researchers surprise. I had an appointment with the specialist today and he commented that the sleepiness was not as good as expected as all patients did not respond the same, but, the mobility was improved in almost all cases. Presently I am taking the caffeine in the form of Wake Up pills (2 pills in the morning and 2 in the afternoon) .

Over the last several years my Parkinson's seems to be holding steady as the changes have been minimal.

I have found that being extremely careful and looking for trouble areas that I have not fallen. I have been trained as a trouble shooter when I was working and you learn to be very observant. I use this knowledge to see if there are any dangers around as I move around. Of course we have railings on both sides of an stairs in our home.