Dealing with EOPD while caring for her terminally ill daughter, who died two years ago aged just 10, Lynn McDonald (45) describes how the impact of being a carer and the lack of resources available were a barrier to slowing the progress of the disease
Lynn McDonald. Photo: Dan Clohessy/Inpho
When Lynn McDonald received a diagnosis of early-onset Parkinson’s disease, she was already a carer for her daughter, who died two weeks before her 11th birthday. The symptoms that were eventually diagnosed over a decade later as early-onset Parkinson’s disease (EOPD) began when the 45-year-old was just 32.
“My initial symptoms were quite vague,” she says. “Numerous things. I just knew I wasn’t right. When I say exhaustion…in your first trimester of pregnancy, you feel a slump. If you quadruple that, that’s just barely touching it.” Insomnia was an issue, as were fainting spells and bowel issues.