Parkinson's and the Availability of Healthcare

Living with Parkinson’s Disease has educated me on not just PD, but on how everyone is different. All persons with PD are different in how the disease manifests itself. Since there is no definitive test for diagnosing PD it  is left up to Healthcare Professionals to diagnose using symptoms.

If every patient with PD has different symptoms and there is no test, then how do Doctors diagnose this?Anf if that is not enough, except for the tremor, shuffling, and loss of balance, the symptoms mimic aging. Most folks with PD have had it years before the actual diagnosis. Putting together all the different symptoms can be tricky.

As soon as I was diagnosed, I joined Facebook Groups for PD. This is where I saw the need for not just a Neurologist but a MDS neurologist. An MDS is a neurologist is one that specializes in Parkinson’s and other movement disorders.

I was assigned a general neurologist by my health system, I saw him one time and then I asked to see the MDS Neurologist. A month later I saw him and had a lot of questions answered. I now see him whenever feel a need or every four months. I called yesterday and received an appointment for a month from today.

I was struck by the thought that in my FB groups, people post about waiting up to a year to see an MDS. That doesn’t include the four to five hour drive to get there. I drive 15 minutes to see my MDS. I happen to live in Sacramento CA. 

Many thousands of people with Parkinson's do not live in an area with that kind of access to healthcare. I am one of the lucky ones. We live in the greatest most prosperous country in the world. We have arguably the best healthcare system in the country. And yet so many of my fellow brothers and sisters with Parkinson’s go through stress that is added to the stress that we as Parkinson’s People go through navigating life. 

There are many discussions over how to improve the access to healthcare going on every election period. However, I never hear the politicians and experts talking about the lack of healthcare availability. Even for those that have premium healthcare coverage, they may not have the availability of healthcare where they live.  

So, yes, we know that no two people with PD are the same. The symptoms are different. The progression is different for everyone. But does the availability of healthcare have to be different also?