Brett Favre shares latest on Parkinson's battle with Michelle Tafoya

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Brett Favre joined Michelle Tafoya on her podcast to talk about why he is fully behind President Trump, Aaron Rodgers and more.

Above, he gives the latest update on his battle with Parkinson's and why he decided to reveal his diagnosis for the first time in front of Congress.

You can listen to the full interview here and read the full transcript of the above clip below.

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Tafoya: And now, you revealed, for the first time in front of Congress, I think that was the first time you said it, correct? That you have been diagnosed with Parkinson's. Right? How'd that hit you, man?

Favre: Like a ton of bricks, as your would imagine. So, about three years ago, I noticed when I would be walking, working outside, it didn't really matter what ... I noticed my right arm would kind of be stuck to my side at a 90-degree angle. And I said, "well that's kind of quirky." I put my arm down, walk normal, and when I forgot about it, a little while later, it would be right back to that spot. 

Well, nothing hurt. It wasn't stuck. So, I didn't really pay much attention to it. I figured, you know, as I get older, you know, pick up quirky habits and then maybe six months after that I noticed when I .. it was like a jacket or long sleeve shirt, I could not guide my arm through the sleeve. I would almost need help to do that.

I felt my arm. It wasn't like that there was a, you know, a disconnect. I just could not guide it. And, really the other thing, and it's kind of funny. I brushed my teeth and I never realized you roll the toothbrush in your hand as you move around your mouth. But I'm looking in the mirror and every time I rolled the toothbrush, I use my left hand. And I thought, "well, that's weird."

So, I kind of just kept it to myself for about two years and I shook a little bit, but I have seen people shake much worse that don't have Parkinson's. Everything to me is right sided. Little bit of shaking. Little bit of rigidity. Little bit of stiffness. Because the Parkinson's I have is called idiopathic. And there's three characteristics of idiopathic Parkinson's. There's cognitive memory. There's rigidity and stiffness. And there's cognitive and memory.

If you have idiopathic, you have one of those three that you major in and you may have a little bit of the others. I just happen to have the rigidity and stiffness. The bad part about that is throw in 20 years of football and it's a double whammy. You know, so when it' comes due for my dose of medicine, which is every four hours, generally I know that it's time to take my medicine because the rigidity and stiffness creeps back in.

More than a year ago I went and saw a doctor here in town, not thinking anything of it. Literally, we shook hands and he said "walk down the hall." So I walked down the hall, I turned around and come back. Got down back in front of him and he said "you got Parkinson's." And my exact words were "you gotta be shittin' me." 

And he said, "no I see it all the time. Your movement is robotic. Like a clock. Tick, tick, tick. And so, your movements are reflective of that." And so, you know, it was kind of a whirlwind couple days after that. Obviously, the first thing I was thinking about is the end of the world is coming. I can't believe this. Not me.

And the reality kind of set in. One of the things my doctor said was, "look, it sucks, the diagnosis. I get that." He was trying to make light of it. And actually I chuckled and he said "you're going to die of something else. You're not going to die of Parkinson's. You may not know what your name is, or Diana's name, but you'll be alive."

And he says, "in the meantime, you take this medicine and 99.9% of people with Carbidopa, we find the right dose for you and when we find the right dose for you, you live pretty much a symptom-fee life." And that's pretty much true and you hope for a cure or something to stop it in it's tracks in the near future.

In revealing, it was really a strategic play with my attorneys in this legal case I've been battling with the state. We didn't want to release it right away just because the negative of "oh, yeah, sure he's going use that as an excuse why." So, we waiting until the Congress.

I don't know if there's ever a good time to reveal something like that, but we felt like it was the time to get it out there.

Tafoya: This may sounds like a dumb question. Did you get a second opinion? I gotta imagine that very quick diagnosis, like you said, it hit you like a ton of bricks, did you think "is he sure"? Or, did you kind of internally know maybe that this was coming?

Favre: No, I had no clue. I was completely just surprised. A hundred percent surprised. One of the things my doctor, first name is Wendell, Wendell and I have had a lot of discussions. And for a neurologist, he's actually fairly normal.

Tafoya: Are some neurologists not normal?

Favre: Well, they're in a different stratosphere than I. But he was like, "we're gonna do an alpha-synuclein biopsy. It's a new test. Not everyone does it. It won't tell you specifics, but if you have Parkinson's this will come back positive."

So, I took the test. And two weeks later it was positive. But I saw four other doctors besides him and they all said the same thing.