Twitchy Woman: My Adventures with Parkinson's

I know you are all waiting eagerly for the results of the very unscientific study that was posted a couple of weeks ago about dominant hand and the start of Parkinson’s symptoms.  As of two days ago there were 299 responses in various forms.

The results were interesting, but defiinitely not conclusive.  Those whose symptoms started on their dominant side accounted for only 52%.  The rest had symptoms begin on the opposite side, or occasionally both sides at once.  I would love to talk to someone who would like to collaborate on this on in a more “scientific” way.  Please contact me if you are interested.  But in the meantime, here are the results, simplified because the original survey was too confusing, even for me, the designer of it:

299 responses

156 or 52%  dominant side

137 or 46% non-dominant

6 or 2% other, both sides, stroke residual

Interesting trivia – 3 reported being naturally left-handed but forced to write with their right hand in school.  Their tremors started on left side.  I counted these as starting on the dominant side.

One of the things I learned is that most people preferred to just respond with a yes or no on Facebook instead of using the  Survey Monkey link provided, and later the WordPress Poll. I changed to the much simpler poll when I saw how people were responding.   Since this post was shared numerous times on FB (over 140!) I have no way of knowing how many people actually responded.

So the most important thing that came out of this is that Parkies don’t pay attention to instructions!  A simple yes or no was all that you wanted to give.   And some of the answers didn’t even make sense!

Somehow there has to be a way to make use of social media to reach out to large numbers of people and get the data that you want.  It can’t be too complicated, for it seems that our reduced attention spans don’t allow for more complex answers.

Dan’s Progress

Dan continues to do very well with the Path Finder shoes.  When he turned them over to Vince, he felt a definite increase in this freezing episodes.  Vince tried it out with his PT, but it did not work for him, unfortunately.  He returned the shoes to Dan, who is now a very happy camper.  I have asked him to write about his experience so that I can share it with you here in a future post.

A New Book for Parkie’s

 One of the first blogs that I followed after my diagnosis was PDPlan4Life which was written by Sheryl Jedlinski and Jean Burns.  Sheryl’s humorous writing and Jean’s illustrations gave me hope that I could live well with PD.  When I heard that Sheryl recently published Parkinson’s? You’re kidding me, right?: One woman’s unshakeable belief in overcoming a shaky diagnosis! , I immediately ordered the book.  I was not disappointed.

With a blend of serious information for the newly diagnosed so newly diagnosed) and self-deprecating humor used to illustrate her points, Jedlinski has written a very enjoyable book that belongs on every Parkie’s bookshelf.  We can all identify with some of the situations that she has found herself in as a result of living with PD.

Finally, I am in Israel for 2 weeks, mostly on vacation, but some PD related business.  There is some great research going on here which I hope to be able to share with you in my next post.