Katie:  Thank you for sharing with us the information in your second
posting.  It helped me to view your situation with a much clearer
perspective.  I apparently misjudged you and the doctors.  Sorry.  Peace,
Bob B.


>From: [log in to unmask]
>Reply-To: Parkinson's Information Exchange Network
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: uncertain diagnosis--response to Bob B.
>Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 00:42:28 EDT
>
>Bob,
>
>      I did ask that very question, and I have the answer, but I did not
>think it was pertinent to my posting.  I have been diagnosed with bipolar
>affective disorder for many years, and I have been on lithium for at least,
>at least 23 years.  I was taken off the lithium in June with the
>understanding that the PD, or PD-like, symptoms,  I experience/have
>experienced were, or could be caused, by the lithium.  I was put on
>depakote
>as an alternative to the lithium, and I am not stable psychiatricly;  I am
>taking stelazine with the hopes it will help get me stable on the depakote.
>
>
>      All of these drugs in the prior paragraph are contraindicated for a
>person with PD, and they can all cause PD-like symptoms.  My latest MDS is
>also convinced that I do not have PD, that I had PD-like symptoms caused by
>the lithium, but that there are other neurological issues/ problems/
>diagnoses that have to be considered once I am stable on the depakote.  The
>muscle spasms and dystonia were supposedly from the sinemet, and the action
>of the first MDS this summer taking me summarily off all my medications
>without any titration or hospitalization.
>
>      This all means I have not had an easy summer even though it may be
>likely that I do not have PD.  And I am not going to get a clean bill of
>health.  I may even have another neurological problems plus the PD, but
>they
>dont know at this point.  I am a very active CMI (chronicly mentally ill)
>consumer and I am a very active PD consumer.  I have asked your question,
>and
>many variants thereof repeatedly, but they, the MDSs and the psychiatrists
>and the neurologists and the orthopedic doctors and the endrocinologists,
>and
>etc., and etc., simply do not know the answers.  Or, at this point in time,
>they do not know the answers.
>
>      If I have PD it was probably caused by my consumption of large
>quantities of stelazine in my late teens and 20s for my CMI issues:  I had
>"PD" in law school and as an undergraduate due to that medication.  I am
>now
>prescribed stelazine because it is effective for my CMI issues, and I have
>to
>get stabilized on the depakote or go back on the lithium.  And I have a
>resultant increase, and exacerbation, of PD symptoms due to taking the
>stelazine.  I have not only asked questions, I have made my choices, and I
>have decided and I may well have to decide in the future to have PD, or
>"PD"-like symptoms, voluntarily due to the CMI issues I have.  This is the
>background you apparently needed to put my prior posting in perspective.
>Katie
>
>
>
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