Kay Mixson Jennings spent six years going to doctors trying to figure out what was wrong with her.
Then, a movement disorder specialist told her she had Parkinson's Disease – or PD.
“I was shocked; I envisioned Muhammad Ali and the Pope and thought there's no way that's what's wrong with me,” she said.
Life changed.
She lost her job operating heavy machinery. And she was forced to miss out on meaningful moments with her son.
“I can't teach him how to tie his shoes or tie a fishing hook because I just can't do it,” Kay said.
PD is a degenerative disorder that affects the body's ability to move. By the time symptoms develop, 80 percent of the chemical that controls movement is lost.
The illness with no known cure comes with some big words too: “There's Dyskinesia, Bradykinesia and rigidity. You can't explain what that means to a small child,” she said.
Then Kay dreamed up a way.
“…who makes mommy look like she's dancing or moving her head to music, but tap-tap will make mommy very tired, Pee Dee explained,” said Kay as she read to her son.
Together with her son Colt, she wrote
“Who is Pee Dee?” Using stuffed animals to represent her symptoms, she tells her 6-year-old the whole story of Parkinson's.
At the end of her book, there's a cure.
And while she might not be able to find cure at the end of her book just yet, Kay could get a call from her doctor any day, asking her to come in for deep brain stimulation therapy, or DBS.
The brain surgery is not permanent, yet it significantly reduces the effects of PD. More than 55,000 patients report success stories. Soon, Kay hopes to share hers.
In the meantime, she'll continue reading her story with its happy ending: “God hope this isn't just a fairy tale – that there is a cure out there,” she said, tearing up.
