Vir­ginia Demo­c­rat Announces Plan To Retire From Con­gress After ‘Parkinson’s On Steroids’ Diag­no­sis

Rep. Jen­nifer Wex­ton (D‑VA) announced on Mon­day that she will not seek re-elec­tion next year after being diag­nosed with a rare neu­ro­log­i­cal dis­or­der that affects body move­ments.
Wex­ton, who is 55 and rep­re­sents a North­ern Vir­ginia dis­trict, said she decid­ed to set­tle on retir­ing from Con­gress at the end of her cur­rent term upon receiv­ing a trou­bling health update sev­er­al months after the con­gress­woman revealed that she had Parkinson’s dis­ease.
Over the course of treat­ments and med­ical eval­u­a­tions, doc­tors gave a “mod­i­fied” diag­no­sis of Pro­gres­sive Supra-nuclear Pal­sy, type‑p (PSP‑P), a form of Atyp­i­cal Parkin­son­ism that is a kind of ‘Parkinson’s on steroids,’” Wex­ton explained in a state­ment.
“I’ve always believed that hon­esty is the most impor­tant val­ue in pub­lic ser­vice, so I want to be hon­est with you now – this new diag­no­sis is a tough one. There is no ‘get­ting bet­ter’ with PSP. I’ll con­tin­ue treat­ment options to man­age my symp­toms, but they don’t work …