Page created by: Jacqueline Romain

One day, in the beginning, Renee lost her balance while shopping at Wal-Mart and she fell into the candy display. A kind nurse who was in line behind her helped her up and told her she should get checked out by her doctor. She saw her doctor who said nothing was wrong. Renee didn't think much of it till she noticed changes in her handwriting and her walk turned into a shuffle. She knew something was wrong. 2 MRI's later, a neurologist found a "pinprick of a dot" that he said was the earliest beginnings of Parkinson's. She got a second opinion at the Mayo Clinic which only took 5 minutes of watching her walk to confirm the diagnosis.
The U of MN enrolled her in a study where she took either a placebo or an experimental drug for a few years.
Renee moved out of her tri level townhome into an independent living place where she lived virtually normally for 10+ years. She had no tremor at all and made friends. She was happy.
Eventually though, her balance became worse and she fell multiple times with several injuries and broken bones. She moved into Assisted Living when she began to forget to take her pills.
In the last 3 years before she died, dementia set in and she moved to the Memory Care unit. Once she fell and broke her arm though, and had to have surgery, she had to move to another facility where she could get 24 HR care since she wanted to get up and walk but was not supposed to push her walker with a broken arm.
Eventually her arm healed and she was able to walk with a walker again.
Renee had Covid twice, the first time only having a small cough for one day. The second time required oxygen and she deteriorated quickly. No longer able to swallow in the last stage of Parkinson's, hospice was brought in and she passed peacefully after 8 days. Rest in peace, Renee.