Monthly Archives: January 2026

Essential Tremors, movement disorders, Parkinson's, Research, Reviews , , , , , , , Leave a comment

My Personal Journey with Medical Misdiagnosis

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Or, What I did last Summer

We remember, fondly or not, typical school essay topics:

  • What I did last summer
  • How my family celebrates the winter holidays
  • What America means to me
  • My favorite (TV, movie, book, song, musical group)
  • Things my parents tell me not to tell other people
  • The greatest American President

I once wrote an essay about a relative. I actually took the question seriously, instead of offering the usual platitudes. I pondered on a negative experience: the untimely death of a child. This loss could have been prevented with more timely reliance on medical providers. Of course, this happened well before penicillin became widely available for treatment of appendicitis or peritonitis. As a parent, I promptly responded when my child complained of abdominal pain. She was treated for appendicitis and survived.

This past year, my summer was also related to a missed diagnosis. Fortunately, no one died, although I had been treated for the wrong condition for over a dozen years. It has been said that physicians bury their mistakes. Not this time. Instead, the differential diagnosis and removal of medications triggered research into the differentiation between Essential Tremors and Parkinson’s Disease. Another side effect was rewording this blog’s subtitle, replacing PD with Movement Disorder. 

I submitted an abstract to the World Parkinson’s Conference. It will be held in May of 2026. Unfortunately, the abstract didn’t make the cut. Perhaps the abstract failed to include enough information, perhaps it didn’t have a positive enough bias in its presentation. Whatever. The research found misdiagnosis of movement disorders is not uncommon. Therefore I’ve decided to share it through this medium. Some people will find value in it.

Below is a table from the article. In future posts, parts of the article will be shared, including the discussion, conclusions, and references by category.

A Table contrasting common and differentiating features of Essential Tremors and Parkinson's Disease
Table 1. Commonalities and Differences (from an unpublished article on Misdiagnosis and Missed Diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease and Essential Tremor

 

 

 

 
isolation, movement disorders, nature, Poetry, Seasons, trees, wildlife , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Snow and ice will suffice

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It’s been nearly a third of a year since I last posted on this site. Advancing years, physical therapy, adjusting to changes in medications and dealing with sleep disorders has kept this off my list of priorities.

So, instead of getting into a list of what has or hasn’t happened during the hiatus, today we’ll look at today and yesterday, as Oklahoma and much of the nation is experiencing a winter storm.

This angular composition is the result opening the kitchen door. Interesting (to me, anyway) are the layers of the snow drift against the door, somewhat analogous to the rings of a tree. As can be seen, we had at least an initial overnight snowfall, followed by three snowfalls of lesser duration or intensity.

Raising our sights up a little, tracks of an unobserved critter are seen between a tree tentatively identified as Cedar Elm (Ulmus crassifolia). The critter leaving tracks is probably either an Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger) or Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Because the Fox squirrel is adaptable to a variety of habitats and is listed as the most common species of squirrel in Oklahoma, it seems these are likely the tracks of a Fox squirrel. The Gray is smaller and prefers densely wooded forests, according to the OSU Gray and Fox Squirrels fact sheet.

Finally, a look out the front door and the texture of snow with a slight line of demarcation between the sidewalk and the minimal porch, providing an illusion of the overcast clouds in the sky.

And if you didn’t catch the allusion in the title…

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