About

About Me (The Unsolicited Report)

Welcome to Not Just Shaking. If you came here looking for a delicate memoir about tremors, prepare to be disappointed.

My name is Lee Shand, and I was diagnosed with Early-Onset Parkinson’s Disease (EOPD) at the age of 50, four years ag now. I currently collect the whole set of symptoms, proving that my body, like my personality, has always been an overachiever.

What the Doctors Told Me: Parkinson’s is usually defined by movement issues—slowness, stiffness, and balance problems (all of which I have, including the delightful experience of my leg occasionally deciding it’s time for a time-out, known clinically as Freezing of Gait).

What I’m Actually Dealing With: The real villain in this story is the relentless army of Non-Motor Symptoms (NMS), which are far more efficient at ruining a day than any tremor. This blog is my report from the trenches, covering:

• The Cognitive Conundrum: The brain fog, the atrocious short-term memory, and the frustrating inability to process simple information (like filling out a basic form at the post office).
• The Zero Club: Navigating the complete theft of motivation and interest, otherwise known as Apathy, which teams up with Anxiety to keep me indoors and generally resistant to human interaction.
• The Pain Report: Why my neck, shoulders, and joints are constantly in revolt (it’s the muscle rigidity, not just arthritis), often accompanied by sensory overload—migraines and that charming Hyperacusis, where normal noise feels like a sonic assault.

This is not a blog about curing Parkinson’s. It’s about logging the failures, celebrating the tiny wins, and sharing the hacks I’ve discovered (like why eating sugar is a one-way ticket to Inflammation Town) to manage the daily chaos. I want this to be a place for “us” I need your help to make this successful, to keep driving forward, because what I fear most, is that I will give up on this in less than 2 week!