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Herald-Tribune Grand Prairie, Alberta Keeping pace with Parkinson's Sexsmith woman battles to prevent disease from stealing her independence ELLEN LAWRENCE Herald-Tribune staff Parkinson's has slowed Linda Sodergren down on the golf course, but it certainly hasn't stopped her from getting in a round or two. Sodergren, who, with husband Edward has owned and operated the Spruce Meadows Golf and Country Club north of Sexsmith for 18 years, was first diagnosed with the disease 12 years ago. Since then, she's learned she has physical limitations, but very little has barred her independence. "In the end, I've learned it's important to really value our time here, to not live for the future, but to live for right now," said Sodergren, 51. "Overall I have to be happy first, I have to be content and pleased with me, myself and I, and then the other things will fall into place." Parkinson's occurs when the brain no longer produces enough of a substance called dopamine, which it needs in order to transmit messages to the muscles. It is estimated about 100,000 people in Canada have Parkinson's. Once believed to be just an ''old person's disease,'' the average age of diagnosis is actually 56. Actor Michael J. Fox was diagnosed at 30. An 11-year-old child has also diagnosed. Parkinson's has many symptoms and not all of them are present in every patient. Most common are tremors in the arms and legs, difficulty and slowness of movement and rigidity. Other symptoms often noted are fatigue, loss of the sense of smell, oily skin on the face, small constrained handwriting and insomnia. A Parkinson's patient often moves around as if he or she is intoxicated. Doctors diagnose Parkinson's based on these symptoms but there are no available medical tests for an immediate diagnosis. A positive response to some Parkinson's drugs helps to confirm the disease. In the fall of 1989, Sodergren, a former teacher and mother of three, began to notice she would run into objects or freeze in mid-movement. She couldn't finish signing her name. At first, she chalked it up to exhaustion, but when she started to feel her muscles shaking inside, she knew whatever was happening to her was serious. Only once she saw a neurologist in Edmonton did she find out she wasn't having a nervous breakdown. "I was just hoping to find out what was wrong with me because originally I thought perhaps my nerves were falling apart," she recalled. "(I felt) Relief in one way because all of a sudden I knew, but I was into something I didn't have any idea what was going to happen to me." Sodergren started taking medication containing L-DOPA twice a day, a chemical which triggers the brain cells to make more dopamine. She now has to take that and another drug five times a day. Up until she was diagnosed, she knew nothing about Parkinson's, except that it made a person's body shake. She's learned that eventually she may not be able to move, perhaps lose the ability to swallow and breathe and her appetite. Last year, she decided against taking one particular drug that would prolong the effectiveness of the L-DOPA because one of the side effects was extreme drowsiness. She would have had to give up driving herself. "I've always been a very independent person," she said of her decision. "That's me, I didn't want to be dependent on anybody." Sodergren makes a point of telling those around the golf course that she has Parkinson's, so they don't mistake her symptoms for those of another disease or drunkenness. She forces her muscles to move by walking and using some Tai Chi exercises, and she maintains a healthy diet to ensure she's getting enough nutrients to her muscles. Sodergren can't predict her future, but she does know that by being strong and remaining positive she'll overcome this disease one day at a time. "It's important to keep going...and also come to terms with the fact life doesn't go on forever," she reflected. "Yes, sometimes I sure am (afraid). You begin to wonder what's happening especially when the symptoms really start to bother you." http://www.bowesnet.com/dht/Z08_a9parkinson.html ****** [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn