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John:

Thank you for your comments.   I suspect that Parkinson's is also
affecting me in ways other than movement disorder and facial masking
that I am not aware of.  I will probably do the testing, but I'm still
in the preliminary stage of making the arrangements.

My employment involves mostly routine methods and procedures, but I have
a lot of freedom to organize my  own work day schedule.  I am  having
more difficulty focusing my attention on task, shifting my attention
from one task to another, recalling info, my spoken vocabulary and
probably my written composition have declined.  It is difficult to
measure my output, because I'm not producing a physical product or
making a sale.  The main tool I use is a PC connected to my
organization's information system, but a lot of my work goes on in my
head.  That's becoming an issue for me at work.  The physical symptoms
of Parkinson's can be seen.  But how do you measure when you suspect
that mental processing is slowing down, vocabulary may be regressing, or
other "higher level" functions may be impaired?

I would be interested in hearing from others on the list.  Putting it
directly, did PD cause people to be "dumber" on the job or elsewhere?
My neuro tells me other patients have told him this, but he hasn't seen
hard proof.   How have others measured this?  Is it the natural course
of PD that you start "feeling" that you are getting dumber, not smarter
or maintaining your cognitive abilities, even if the medications improve
your physical functioning.

Thanks, Charley