Shaking Off Misconceptions

Parkinson’s disease is the second-most common age-linked neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s, yet few know its symptoms beyond the shakes. The reality is that many sufferers don’t shake – and because they don’t know the other signs, they don’t seek treatment early that may help slow its progress.

- Glynis Horning

Watching him walk ahead of me to the car after our early-morning swim two years ago, it struck me that my beloved mountain-hiking househusband, Chris, was developing a slight stoop and a shuffle. ‘Straighten up, Sweetheart; lift those feet!’ I chided. ‘You’re not a grandpa yet.’

‘It’s my sandals,’ he shot back with a grin, squaring his shoulders, and I left it.

In the weeks that followed I noticed he was doing fewer laps in the pool. ‘Just taking it easy,’ he said. ‘What’s the rush?’ And because he’s walked quite slowly for years, I left it.

When he began stopping by my home-office desk to ask for back rubs, he told me that after 60 your back gets stiff sometimes. Besides, he’s always been a sucker for a massage. So I left it still.

Then, in September 2019, the unthinkable happened: we lost our older son to depression at 25. Bowed by the sheer weight of grief, I, too, found myself shuffling through life, blind to those around me, even the man who had always been my rock. But the morning he quietly asked whether I’d do the grocery run because he couldn’t get in the car and drive, I snapped to attention. Overriding the objections (‘I’m fine; it’s nothing; don’t fuss’), I booked an appointment with our GP. She sent him straight to a neurologist, who ordered a brain scan.

‘Just wanted to confirm what we already suspected,’ said the cheery neuro at the report-back. ‘Your husband has Parkinson’s.’

‘How can that be?’ I asked, flabbergasted. ‘He doesn’t shake!’