For the past year or so, Sterling Marlin’s brain would tell his right hand to complete a fine-motor task, such as cranking a boat or buttoning the collar on a shirt. And the fingers on that hand wouldn ‘t respond. And with time his hand began to shake. Marlin said symptoms first began after he suffered a laceration to the knuckle on the middle finger of his right hand. The injury, he said, included nerve damage. But rather than go to the doctor he simply Super-Glued it closed. ‘Cut the knuckle real bad on (my) bird finger ‘¦ I couldn ‘t shoot a bird. Just impossible,’ said Marlin, reached by phone. ‘It wouldn ‘t move and I thought that was the problem. But it got healed up and I said, ‘’¦ Something’s still wrong. ‘ And it kept getting worse and worse and worse, so I went to the doctor to see what the hell’s going on.’ During that visit, Marlin said, doctors revealed that he had developed Parkinsonism.
‘I ‘ve had people say, ‘Man, you got Parkinson’s Disease? ‘ I say, ‘F’ naw!” laughed Marlin in signature matter-of-fact fashion. ‘It’s called Parkinsonism. It’s associated with (Parkinson’s Disease), but it’s nothing-near like it. You just take the medicine and you ‘ll be fine. It ain ‘t no problem.’ According to the Mayo Clinic’s website, Parkinsonism is ‘any condition that causes a combination of the movement abnormalities seen in Parkinson’s disease ‘ such as tremor, slow movement, impaired speech or muscle stiffness ‘ especially resulting from the loss of dopamine-containing nerve cells (neurons).’(ESPN)(10-28-2012)
