PD ALARM

My teeth chattered wildly; I shook all over.

I jumped on the Internet to find out why.

"You're cold," it told me. 

Hah. Far from cold, I sat almost on top of a heater turned on high.

"You're stressed out or panicked," the Internet said. 

About my teeth clattering, yes. Otherwise, no.

"Side effects from medication." No.

"Withdrawal from drugs." No.

Then there it was: "Parkinson's Disease."

Oh my God! I'm going to chatter and shake like this for the rest of my life! I couldn't believe how rotten that would be.

I called the UNMC nurse and told her "PD." She told me to call the neurological department. That nurse told me to go to ER. I went. By then I'd stopped chattering and shivering. 

"Urinary infection," the ER doctor announced. Then he shot me and pilled me and sent me home, saying: "It couldn't be Parkinson's coming on so fast. PD comes on gradually."

That was a relief!

The moral of this story? Don't be your own doctor? Don't trust the Internet? Or perhaps just don't believe the worst of old Parkinson's.