Parkinson’s, for obvious reasons, is primarily thought of as a movement disorder; resting tremor, slowness, or bradykinesia. For us long-timers, walking and balance are a bitch. PD is also a non-movement disorder; changes in mood and sleep, fatigue, difficulty speaking, as well as digestive tract issues. When our behavior even hints at any of these changes, we first try to attribute them to aging, or more often, we just keep it to ourselves. A Parkinsonian condition I rarely contemplated before now, much less spoke of, is cognitive change: loss of memory, confusion, delusions, and dementia.
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