As a new Parky, coming to terms with the diagnosis and trying to absorb information from all of you, one remarkable point (that you'll already be aware of) strikes me, and that is...
The road to disability (of any sort) with PD is a very long one. Many people, like myself report symptoms years before diagnosis (loss of smell/stiffness/sleeping problems etc), in some cases 10 + years before there are any obvious symptoms. On nearly all those occasions, we're dismissed by our GPs or Neurologists and told to get back to our lives. Only when we're presenting such obvious signs that a trained monkey could diagnose it, are we given any attention.
What really irritates me, as a former health professional, is that this disease was identified in 1817 and here we are 200 years later, and there's still no algorithm of symptoms or presentations- not to mention a clear diagnostic test, for the disease. Ebola, HIV, Smallpox and many more awful illnesses have come and 'gone' in that time, yet we and many other neurology patients are left to languish. I know you can't hurry progress and that the brain is a little understood organ, but f*ck sake!
I feel better now. :)
Me.