Hello..is this thing on..Sister help please

The believe that my 85 year old dad has Parkinson's.

Do any of you have personal experience w/ Parkinson's..

From 85 until his natural death what would progression be?

Right now he's maily shuffling his feet, does it always progress to the tremors?

Does the medication reverse the symptoms??

I'd appeciate any feedback. And Yes..I already looked at the medical websites but was looking for personal experience.
Thanks!!

Lazarus-Schmazarus!

Let's raise this board! :)


I'll take a moment to post some updates in my life and my upcoming adventure into Tanzania. If anyone is interested, please continue reading...

Perhaps it was because I recently celebrated another birthday, and I am starting to realize that I'm not doing what I want to be doing. What a frustrating thing that is! It's amazing to me how, stereotypically speaking, in this society a "passion" has to be a "hobby". There are very few people alive (myself included) who are fortunate enough to get paid a living wage doing what absolutely inspires them. That's not to say I don't like my job, but it certainly is not what I think I've been called to do. Nor do I think it impacts the world or lives around me. My job pads my wallet (ha, and even that is sometimes questionable), not my heart - or my soul.

So these thoughts have been weighing heavily on me, and I cannot shake them. It's so tough to sit at my desk each morning, collecting my paycheck, buying my groceries, and just...existing. I want to live. I want to experience things! I want to help.

But how does one just pick up and shift their life? How does that work? What I feel I need to do, which is what I've felt since I was a wee lass, is travel the world in some sort of humanitarian form. Ideally, I have always wanted to be a professor at a small, liberal-arts college, and use my summers and sabbaticals to travel to third-world countries and not only soak up their culture, but use my time and skills to help improve the lives of women. So how does one get from where I am to there? How do I get to my dream?

Well, for starters I've begun applying to grad schools. We'll see where that takes me. One very stark unfortunate blank-spot on my applications is "relevant experience". My degree is in Business Administration; trying to sell myself as a Women's Studies or Sociology student is going to be tough. I'm independently versed on the topics, but I have no formal academic training. Ugh.

Also, my partner, Lisa, and I have decided that some volunteering abroad will sooth my aching soul. So we started researching organizations like the Peace Corps, but we really cannot give up our lives for 2 years at this point (see aforementioned paragraph regarding money and passions). However, we did find a very reputable company that offers volunteer opportunities on a weekly fashion. Come September, Lisa and I will hop on a plane, travel 25 hours, and park ourselves in a village outside Arusha, Tanzania for three weeks.

I've signed up to work with women's groups once I'm over there, and will be helping local women use microlending funds to establish their own small businesses. Lisa has put herself down as a "wherever needed" worker - she might wind up volunteering in an AIDS orphanage, a nursing home, a school, etc.

So this is our growth opportunity, and a stepping stone to what I feel I should be doing. And going to Africa has always been a dream for Lisa, who already has a humanitarian heart of gold.

That's my life right now. I'm eating one can of $0.69 food during the day, and pretty much pasta at night; there's a HUGE sacrifice to get the funds to make this trip work. Until 2007, I'm devoting myself completely to Tanzania - saving for the trip, experiencing the trip, and then rebuilding my life so I can make the trip again! And, hopefully, some good news on grad school will float my way in the meantime...

Hope all is well in the land of Yay-Yays!