In December of 1997 I was married to Richard schindler . With a big shock we found out we were pregnant in may of 1998. A very happy time in my life. In January of 1999 Brianna Charlotte Schindler was born. She was my life, a very happy family. A few years after she was born I noticed my pinky had slight movement. I didn’t give it a second thought. In march of 2002 I found out I was pregnant again. So in November of 2002 Danielle Carolyn Schindler was born. Now I thought my life was perfect. The movement in my right pinky was getting more noticeable. I was working at a local grill in a hospital when I noticed that I was shaking more than I should I thought it was just me being nervous, I decided to go to a neurologist to see what he thought it could be. He determined that it was due to having to much caffeine and migraines, so he put me on medication for migraines. I quit caffeine all together for a year and nothing the movement was still there. I lost my job due to the fact they thought I couldn’t keep up. I found another job that also didn’t work out . On September 20th of 2004 we bought our first house, right at the end of my mom and dads driveway. By this time my whole had was shaking I was working at arbys, the shaking was so bad that I dropped a pan of pecan rolls and had second degree burns on my right hand. When I went to the doctor for the burn she noticed I was shaking by my breathing. I would hold my hands so no one could see the shaking and the doctor said why didn’t you come and see me about this earlier. Then I told her about the whole neurologist and she said if you don’t like one opinion we get another. So she made me an appointment for September 30th of 2004. This was the scariest day of my life, I didn’t know what to expect. So I met with the neurologist two and a half hours from my home, his name was David Blake. He came in the room put me through a tone of dog tricks I called them, I think the only thing I didn’t do was jump through a hoop. He told me after all this that he would return in a few minutes. It seemed like a lifetime. A few minutes later he returned in the room with a pink box in hand. The next words out of his mouth brought my perfect world crashing down. He said “ Wendy it is my concern that you have Parkinson’s disease.” I was just blown away. I thought how is this possible I thought that this was something you get when you are older not at 30 years old. He said we are going to do some test to rule out other possibilities, I had a cat scan and mri of the brain to make sure there were no tumors. So a month later I returned with the test scans in hand. My nightmare became reality, no tumors it was Parkinson’s. I was devastated . I became very depressed and didn’t know what to do. It seemed like my world was falling apart. In January of 2005 I found out I was pregnant again, I was scared to death due to the medication I was on. I was farther along than I could imagine I was 20 weeks with a little boy. About 2 weeks later I had a miscarriage. That was devastating. I became even more depressed. I have met a lot of people since being diagnosed with Parkinson’s the first couple years were very difficult. With the right combination of medication that works for you it makes life a little easier. At least easier to get around, I have found love and support from people I would have never have met without Parkinson’s. At least something good has come of something so bad. I am very active in finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease. I attended my 2nd PAN Forum in Washington dc this year, and a very shocking surprise my best friend in the world attended this event with me. She is very supportive. She is not only my best friend she is married to my brother. I cant call her my sister in law because she is way more than that. I am glad for the support of family and friends. I was saved on September 5th of 2007. Now I have the support of my church family who I know prays for me and loves me. Once again my life is good, all we need is a cure for Parkinson’s so no one else deals with this awful disease.
Wendy Schindler
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