Sue Goldie Has Parkinson's Disease

"It starts with a tingle, a tremor, a sense that something is off. Dr. Sue Goldie doesn't recognize the symptoms at first. Maybe she ignores them, wishes them away. It is 2021. She is 59, in the prime of a long teaching career at Harvard. She has just immersed herself in the sport of triathlon. One coach notes something off with her running cadence. Another wonders why her left arm isn't fully lifting out of the water."

"A trainer sees a slight tremor. The first time Sue races, she feels a strange vibration, like an internal tremble. Then Sue sees it herself: Twitching fingers on her left hand. Tests reveal it is Parkinson's, the incurable neurological disease that robs its victims of their motor skills, and sometimes their minds, one extinguished neuron at a time."

"For nearly four years, she keeps her diagnosis from most Harvard administrators, colleagues and students, worried about what it will do to her reputation. She grows more comfortable revealing herself away from work, in the world of triathlon. I feel very strongly that I should be able to disclose this when I want, how I want, and it's under my control, she tells me last year."

"But Parkinson's does not wait. Maybe others don't notice the physical signs, not yet. They don't see her in the early morning, shuffling off-balance to the bathroom before her medications kick in, a daily reminder that Parkinson's was not something she dreamed last night. Maybe they don't see the pill boxes in her purse, the exposed feeling she gets when the dopamine medications wear off, the persistent worry behind her cheerful disposition."

Dr. Sue Goldie, 59 and a Harvard professor, developed Parkinson's in 2021 after noticing tremors and altered movement during triathlon training. Coaches and trainers observed gait, arm and tremor changes that she initially downplayed. Medical testing confirmed Parkinson's, a progressive neurological disease that impairs motor skills and can affect cognition. She concealed the diagnosis from most administrators, colleagues and students for nearly four years out of concern for reputation, while gradually revealing it within athletic circles. Daily life includes medication timing, off-period vulnerability, visible pill boxes and a persistent underlying worry despite an outwardly cheerful demeanor.

Read at www.nytimes.com