One of the issues with PD is that it’s easy to mistake a PD symptom for changes that occur naturally simply as a result of getting older. Sometimes when I’ve complained about a PD “symptom” to my sister Susan, she replies that she has the same problem because of her age.

As I grow older, I am experiencing an ever-lengthening list of ailments that may or may not be linked to PD. It’s often hard to tell the difference. For instance, do I sometimes have difficulty remembering words? Yes. Is this PD or old age? It could be either or both. And, do I sometimes experience body aches and stiffness? Yes, but old people experience this, too.

I recently visited my neurologist and she conducted a brief cognitive test and determined that the difficulties I’m experiencing with forgetfulness are most likely the effect of aging and not a symptom of PD. I don’t know if I find that comforting or not: I’m not the victim of the disease’s progression but I’m just a forgetful old woman – ha ha.

Whether these new ailments are PD or not is really only important in trying to determine how fast the PD is progressing. I  frequently worry about how long I will be able to function independently. How many good years do I have left? How soon will I become too disabled to drive or walk or to think straight.  In some ways I am reassured that my future is not all that different than it would normally be as a result of getting older. But the aging process is slow enough to give you ample time to adjust to changing abilities. With PD a new symptom just seems to pop up with no time to get used to it.

I see my neurologist about every four months. Each time she has me fill out a form that lists about 30 PD symptoms and for each one I mark whether I have it and if so, is worse or about the same. Fortunately for me, I am not experiencing most of them. And some things I do experience – such as thumb pain – are not on my doctor’s list at all and can be attributed to something else, like arthritis.

The fact that many of the ailments I experience are not all that different (so far) from the sorts of problems a normal 64-year-old would have is at once reassuring and troubling. No one wants PD, but getting older is not for sissies, either!