It took me 3 years to get a diagnosis. The onky symptom I had was incrrasingly severe fatigue. I have never been a graceful person- bumping into things, etc Didn't have very good hand-eye coordination. I started my annual falls in my early 50s. ( I am now 80; was 79 when diagnosed). The worst fall I had was one day lwhen I was walking home from taking myngrandson to school. I was feeling OK. But I took a bad fall. I did not even realize I was falling until my face was inches from hitting the sidewalk at full speed, so I didn't put my hands up to break my fall and I fell flat on my face. Fortunaely, i didn't knock any teeth out and, although my glasses went flying through the air they didn't break. But my nose was smashed flat. I was in the hospital for a week, while they ran all sorts of tests - heart and neurological tests and found nothing to account for the fall. The did a good job of fixing my nose but the didcouraged me from looking at it before it was repaired. Apparently i would ha cvefrightened small children .I continued to have 1 bad fall every year until I was diagnosed and started L- dopa. I was diahnosed in October 2023 and I havn't resumed my annual "fall" ritual. I also apparently have had REM sleep disorder since I was in my early twenties. They have been a constant source of amusement in our family. Like the time I bolted up right in the middle of the night, pulled my husband's pillow out from under his head, threw it across the bedroom, and laid back down to sleep. l never knew that this was abnormal until I was introduced to Mr. Parkinson and his nasty bag of tricks. My poor husband has hsd somr close calls. One night zi dreamed a man was tdyong to steal my baby. In real life, as he always dies, he tried to wake me
up and grabbed my arm. I,, if course, thought it was the man whibwad trying to take my baby, and i trird very hard to bite his hand. Fortunatele he was abke to wake md up before i harmed him.
There was one otger thing tgat
In retrospect could hawmce indicated PD. By the time I was 40, I probablystarted losing my sense of smell. The day after ee had moved into a new house, my husband smelled something burning. A lamp had fallrn over onto a rug and the rig eas in fire. My hudbsnd followed his nise ti the firr and put it out. I never smelled it. We just thought like my sense of direction (which is NONE( I had no sense of smell and I undiubtedky owe many of my work colkeagyes apologies fir ocer-doing it with perfume..

So falls, REMZ, abd no sense of smell prrceded my diagnosis by at least 40 years