I was diagnosed with PD in Dec. 08. My first symptom appears to have been 15 years ago when I lost my sense of smell, which was preceded for a time by smelling certain things and still smelling the same thing for up to a week later. My first experience with this was the smell of cardamon in a bakery - I couldn't understand why that smell was so overwhelming to me at the time. After I left everything smelled like cardamon for at least another week. It was very strange to me, but I felt fine so I didn't worry about it too much. After a week or so I would go on to another scent that would not go away for a while. This went on for several months before I totally lost my sense of all smell. Since my diagnosis I am now on Requip XL 8 mg and Azilect 1 mg and 1200 mg of COQ10 and now for the first time in many years I am able to slightly smell some things. That's progress I guess It is an important marker if this is truly a first symptom of PD, as it was for me - something for our close, younger family members to be aware of.