Ms. Herman, 
Thank you for responding. I found the book extremely useful and comforting and I have started passing it around my family. As I mentioned before,  though hereditary tremors exist in the family I'm the first with a diagnosis of PD, though my brother is showing more symptoms. 
I'm under the care of a wonderful neurologist near home and at Yale Neurology Clinic. The confirmation of the pd diagnosis was made by Dr. Bahmar Jabbari, Yale clinic's motion disorder specialist. I certainly plan on attempting clinical trials and am participating in the 23andme study.
Thank you again for the book and support.
Best, Jen 

> Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 05:12:26 +0000
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Newbie's introduction
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> Hi jen,
> 
> Welcome to the Parkinsn List.I have been a member for 14 years, and  I am still learning and finding support from its members from all over the world. I hope you will  find it  worthwhile too.
> 
> I'm also one of the co-authors of  When Parkinson's Strikes Early, and its a  wonderful feeling to hear that  newly diagnosed people are still finding the book useful and that it is helping people deal with their diagnoses, at a very scary time for them.  Thank you for mentioning the book. 
> 
> This is a good time for you to look into clinical trials -- many of the neuroprotection studies will only accept  newly diagnosed  patients who are not yet on levodopa or dopamine agonists.  For up - to date info on recruiting clinical trials for PD see:
> www.pdtrials.org
> 
> Many of the PD organizations have pages on their web site for the newly diagnosed, such as the Parkinson's Disease Foundation's Living with Parkinson's
> http://www.pdf.org/en/living_pd
> 
> I worked for 10 years after my diagnosis. I needed a few accommodations, but these are our rights.  For info on your rights under the ADA and  requesting accommodations, See the JAN network :
> http://www.jan.wvu.edu/media/PD.html
> 
> If you are interested in political advocacy, talk to the folks at the Parkinson's Action Network: about political  and research funding issues affecting PWP. 
> www.parkinsonsaction.org
> 
>  I think the best  advice for living with PD is to fight back  against the disease  in any way you can -- and you're already doing that  by  learning  more about the disease ,  exercising (the only proven neuroprotective therapy  thus far), by considering clinical trials and by reaching out  others in the Parkinson's community.
> 
> Welcome again,
> Linda Herman
> 
> ---------- Original Message ----------
> From: Jennifer Gaudio <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Newbie's introduction
> Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2009 08:44:44 -0500
> 
> Hello all, 
> 
>  
> 
> My name is Jen Gaudio. I'm 38 and was just diagnosed with YOPD on October 14th. I'm doing fairly well as I suspected it for a while and had time to prepare. I've been experiencing tremors, muscle weakness, spasms and rigidity in my left side since 2007. The diagnosis got confused as the worst symptoms popped up after I had tendon repair surgery on both my legs. It seems tremors run in my family--seven have them all ranges of age--but I am the first to knowingly develop into pd. I'm working on participating in some studies. I figure if I can help someone else down the line it may be worth it. 
> 
>  
> 
> I'm in the research and planning stages. I think that's where most of my freakout energy is going. I found out about this listserv from "When Parkinson's Strikes Early" and here I am. I'm most interested in how to maintain some normalcy while losing independence as it progresses (I'm single and likely staying that way) work and ADA issues (I'm a museum curator) and anything that may help slow progression and keep some level of fitness (brfore the surgery I was a yoga and tai chi student and loved swimming).
> 
>  
> 
> As a newbie I'm grateful that this listserv exists, thank you to all who developed and support this resource.
> 
>  
> 
> Best,
> 
> Jen
>  		 	   		  
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