PD Lingo

I am not a doctor and have no medical training, apart from taking a first aid course a few years ago, which I highly recommend, especially as statistics show the majority of accidents happen in the home. Anyone who suffers chronic disease, usually takes it upon themselves to become educated and fluent with the symptoms, medications and lingo associated with their particular illness. When I first started to hear the words dyskinesia, bradykinesia, dopamine, levodopa; these were all new to me. I felt as if I needed a special Parkinson's dictionary to make sense of all this medical lingo. Having now lived with Parkinson's for over six years, I am well versed with all the relevant terminology. I believe the more informed you are, the better your prognosis will be in coming to terms with a life changing disease such as Parkinson's or Gaucher disease. Now if you think the lingo relating to Parkinson's requires a little studying, the lingo related to Gaucher disease is even worse and you'll need to learn how to say lysosomal, Erlenmeyer flask deformity, bone infarctions, bone necrosis or glucocerebrosidase. These long medical words that are sometimes tongue twisters brings to mind a word from the film "Mary Poppins"; supercalifragilisticespedaliocious! Now if you can say that, you can say anything!