Madison Burgess
Rebecca Crews has opened up on her 11-year health battle with Parkinson's Disease in an emotional new interview.
The 60-year-old wife of Brooklyn 99 star Terry Crews has spoken out about her struggles for the first time in a lengthy chat with PEOPLE Magazine, including how doctors initially dismissed her symptoms as 'anxiety'.
She also appeared on The TODAY Show on Monday (6 April) to further speak about her diagnosis publicly after undergoing a new treatment procedure.
Rebecca, who has been married to Terry, 57, since 1989, was eventually diagnosed in 2015 after experiencing four years of unexplained symptoms.
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Parkinson's Disease is a progressive neurological condition that causes problems in the brain and gets worse over time.
It affects 10 million people worldwide, symptoms generally develop slowly over years, and there is currently no cure.
Rebecca detailed how the first warning signs she noticed were that her left toes would go numb whenever she rode her bike, her leg began dragging, and she started forgetting where she parked her car.
Her personal trainer also noticed that her left arm seemed oddly stiff when she was working out, in comparison to her right one.
The red flag that appeared first was in 2012, which was numbness in her left foot, which manifested into a limp.
However, she claims that her doctor simply thought the limp was due to her working out too much, and she put the other later symptoms down to what was going on in her personal life.
"I thought it was just the stress because of everything we were going through,” she said, “And then one morning I woke up with a tremor, and I thought, ‘Hmmm, I know what that means.'"
Both her grandmother and uncle were diagnosed with Parkinson’s when she was young, so she recognised the tremor as a symptom.
However, for several years following this, health professionals were unable to explain what was going on, and Rebecca claimed her doctor put her tremors down to anxiety.
Terry recalled: "I would ask her, ‘What’s going on?' and she’d say, ‘Nothing.’ It was clear she was trying to tough it out."
Finally, after three years of mysterious symptoms, a Parkinson's specialist eventually recognized that she had the condition.
And recently, she underwent a groundbreaking non-invasive procedure, which used sound waves directed into the brain to help with her symptoms.
"I feel good. I’m able to write my name and my dates, and I’m able to write with my right hand for the first time in probably three years," Rebecca said on The TODAY Show.
Terry recalled: "I’d been reading about this and researching it for ten years. I told her, ‘Honey, I really think this will help you.’"
And Rebecca claims it has drastically improved her tremors, as she said: “The only reason I’m going public is because I finally have some uplifting information to offer."
She underwent the procedure on 4 March and has already seen major improvements - she says the tremor on her right side is gone, and her balance has improved.
So far, Rebecca has only had the procedure on one side of her body, but she will be getting it on the other side in September.
She explained: "Part of the procedure is improved symptoms, so you’re improved on one side (but) not on the other. However, each day that I do things, I’m aware of the benefit that’s already been to me on the one side of the body. So I’m looking forward to doing the left side."