The beginning.......

How did I end up getting YOPD (Young onset Parkinsons Disease)? What happened? What were the first signs? Is there a family connection?

These were some of the first questions I had for myself and that were frequently asked of me. Sooooo, I guess I'll start as far back as I can remember to the first signs that I missed.

I worked as a Deputy Probation Officer in Central California for 20 years. It's here that I look back on the first symptoms that I found helpful in my job as my co-workers gaged and wrinkled up their noses. A great reduction and loss of smell.

You have to understand that when I say it was helpful in my job as a Probation Officer was because I spent a majority of my career as a a field officer, which means I was out in the community contacting, searching or arresting probationers walking on the streets, at their homes or anywhere I could locate them.

Now, you might ask, "How does this tie in to your loss of smell? Well, imagen a house full of cats. I don't mean four of five cats, I mean 30+ of the little critters. With nowhere else to go poop or pee. Imagen walking up to a single wide trainer in the brutal summer heat of the Central Valley where the temperatures reach 110 degrees plus in the afternoon. Now mix in those 30 or so cats and I chuckle as I remember smelling the stench of ammonia and feces as I was walking up to the trailer. Now I was already starting the chuckle to myself because a few of my coworkers were already staring to gag from the smell on the outside. I knew then that my sense of smell was diminished (I never thought why) and I was happy I didn't have to smell the stench. It got worse as we made contact at the front door and entered the trailer to clear it for additional people and to conduct a search. The cats were everywhere. I remember looking under a bed and seeing five or six cats eating a dead cat. I remember my coworker behind me gaging and thinking, "I hope this motherfucker doesn't puke on me!" as he was much taller and I was wearing a bullet proof vest under my tactical vest. Puke stuck in a vest running down your back! No thank-you!

After a while it became a running joke that I could go into places that the rest of the team couldn't because I could tolerate the smells so much better. Little did I know this was probably one of the first signs of Parkinsons I was showing. Loss of smell. Little did I know of what was to come, and the journey I was going be forced to travel.