Parkinson's Disease Support Group

Parkinson's disease is a movement disorder often characterized by muscle rigidity, tremor, a slowing of physical movement, and in extreme cases, a loss of physical movement. The primary symptoms of Parkinsons are due to excessive muscle contraction, normally caused by the insufficient formation and action of dopamine, which is produced in the dopaminergic neurons of the...

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hisknobs 10/08/2014

I went into a coffee shop to pick up a cup of joe to go. As I am looking back and forth between the help and the menu on the wall I did not notice that my head was spinning small circles. The girl behind the counter saw this and started to laugh. I felt that she thought I was doing this on purpose to get a laugh. I considered explaining PD and that it was just a symptom but instead I smiled and exaggerated this uncontrolled movement and laughed with her. What would you have done?
Best regards. Alex

debfromnj 10/08/2014

I think it is funny. I probably would have explained - but why not just be funny. I was on a website where a lady shared that she just deals with the dysinkesia rather than trying to fight it because it is better than the pain from the PD. She said that her and her co-workers get a big kick out of watching her body and the contortions and how she does her job around the contortions - they laugh all the time about it. I thought that was pretty neat - laughing is fun to do.

1shakeybabe 10/08/2014

Dear Alex,

What else could you have done? If you had taken the time to explain dyskinesia to her, your coffee would have gotten cold and you would have made her feel terrible. There are too many ill-mannered people in this world to waste our time trying to educate them on common courtesy.

Hang on to your sense of humor and remember to laugh every day. It does wonders for the soul

Madge.

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