Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., says her Parkinson's disease won't keep her from representing Virginia in Congress.
"I love my job. I don’t want to stop doing it," Wexton said in a one-on-one interview with News4.
Even so, Wexton said she’ll now have to move a little more slowly.
"I’ll just move a little bit slower than most people move around, but our brains are just as fast as everyone else’s and some of us are even quicker," she said.
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Wexton announced her diagnosis on Tuesday, World Parkinson's Day.
"I too have Parkinson’s or what some people call PD for short," she said in a video announcement.
Since her announcement, she's received hundreds of messages of support from the 10th Congressional District and from across the country, she said.
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"It’s really amazing how people come together and want to make you feel better when you're hurting," Wexton said.
She began to experience symptoms of the movement disorder about two years ago.
"Those were things like my toes would cramp and curl up and they would clench," she said.
At first, Wexton chalked it up to her usual 20,000 steps per day walking on Capitol Hill’s hard marble floors — until she researched her symptoms.
"The very first one is, it said, this is a sign of Parkinson’s, and well, that can’t be. I can’t have Parkinson’s. I’m far too young," she said.
In December 2022, after months of appointments, tests and trial treatment, Wexton's doctors concluded the symptoms were from Parkinson’s.
"I had been able to prepare myself for it, but finding out for sure was still not very pleasant," she said.
Wexton said she didn't disclose her diagnosis while running for reelection last fall because Parkinson's hasn't affected her work.
"I’m a very private person. I didn’t really tell very many people what I was dealing with. For me it was a personal thing. It was only my immediate family who knew," she said. "It's also a matter of it wasn’t affecting my ability to do my job."
Now that Wexton has shared her diagnosis, she's joined the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on Parkinson's Disease and said she hopes to help others find better treatment and, possibly, a cure for the disease.
"I’m on the appropriations committee so I’m going to ask for money for this as well. We’re so close to so many cures and just need a little bit more money to push it over the edge," she said.
