My boyfriend was diagnosed with Parkinson's in his early 40's. He had the disease for 12 years before he eventually died of an (allegedly unrelated) brain tumor. His whole life revolved around his routine for taking his meds -- trying to figure out how he could be mobile and relatively normal long enough to get back home before the symptoms worsened. There were times when it didn't work -- once we were stuck on a subway platform late at night and he basically couldn't walk or move.
He was a rugged looking, athletic guy otherwise. Strangers assumed he was drunk or somehow acting out and could be very hostile for no reason that I could see.
I became so familiar with the symptoms that I could recognize Parkinson's even before the individual knew what he had. (A dubious talent -- you can't go around telling strangers to get to a neurologist.) Janet Reno for example had that set of her jaw, sometimes called a mask, that is often an early indicator. If you look at old film of Fox you can see that way back he had a habit of flexing his jaw muscles, as if to loosen them up.
There may be new treatments for this disease in the near future, but so far embryonic stem cells have been a dead end, and I think Fox has been misled about their promise.
I'm so sorry to hear about your boyfriend - how awful. I know what you mean about Parkinson's - once you're sensitized to the symptoms, they are hard to miss. I'm guessing that if you looked at the YouTube link I posted, it wouldn't take you more than a few seconds to see it, although clearly, others don't...