It’s been an interesting career. I’ve been a radio disc jockey, news director, program director, talk show host, and I was one of the original broadcasters at XM Satellite Radio. I’ve been a newspaper editor, writer, reporter and columnist. In between radio and news gigs, I drove 18-wheeler for a living. I eventually found myself working for the federal government, as a writer-editor with the Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health, a job from which I was forced to retire by Parkinson’s disease in March 2011. Parkinson’s disease… It was just about three weeks after my 45th birthday in 2000 when I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. In 2007 while working at a federal agency as a writer and podcaster, telling other people about the importance of clinical trials, I heard about and volunteered for an experimental brain surgery to determine whether or not “deep brain stimulation” could be done on patients in the earlier stages of the disease. The purpose of the clinical trial is to prove that DBS, when done earlier in the progression of the disease, might just slow down or stop the degeneration that is an inevitable part of the disease. “Put On Your Parky Face!” is the story of my “Parkinson’s Decade” from being diagnosed in 2000, to having the surgery in 2007, through today. The story is told in a humorous, satirical, almost jovial first-person, conversational style. It’s a book that should be on the reading list of anyone who has (or loves someone who has) Parkinson’s disease. 100 percent of the author proceeds go to the National Parkinson Foundation and the Charles DBS Research Fund at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Bill currently blogs about his PD experiences at http://billschmalfeldt.com. He also writes satire about world and local news as the official Baltimore Liberal Examiner at Examiner.com. Feel free to check his blog, share your comments and just say “hello”!

You Never Miss the Dopamine Until the Brain Runs Dry