Cindy Birk Conley wrote:
>
> I've been doing sporadic research on PD for about the past year, but decided
> to get serious about it by searching out the best PD sites and subscribing
> to this and the CARE lists.
>
> My mom, who is now 79, was diagnosed by our family doctor with PD about a
> year ago.  Looking back, we can see the signs over several years, although
> Mom has some arthitis and osteoprosis and hearing loss which masked the
> slowness of movement, bad balance, shuffling steps, and blank expression.
> We thought her problems with constipation was due to the slowness of
> movement and intake of iron from anemia which she has suffered from for
> about ten years.
>
> Anyway, on her 77th birthday Mom had a bad fall in her bedroom and spent
> several hours trying to get up on her own before calling me, and since then
> her left shoulder and arm have been pretty much useless, although only a rib
> was broken in the fall.  Two weeks before her 78th birthday over one weekend
> (after a couple of other falls) she lost the ability to get out of bed by
> herself and since then we have had caregivers with her during the day and me
> to sleep with her at night--she has lived in our house for several years.
> She spent a few days in the hospital after she first became weak, which is
> when I heard the term Parkinsons, and was started on some heart medicine,
> stool softeners, arthitis pills, and acid controllers.
>
> Our family doctor has discouraged me from taking her to a nuerologist and
> starting her on any Parkinsons medicines.  Mom only shakes when she gets
> really tired or upset, but has a lot of rigidity.  The doctor feels she will
> need the medicine as some of the other symptoms occur--shaking, difficulty
> swallowing, further loss of movement--and if she starts now the side effects
> will be bad and she will also build a tolerance to the medicines.  We've had
> the physical therapists from the homecare agency a few times, but they leave
> after Mom gets to a plateau.
>
> Last week Mom had her 79th birthday.  Mom's depressed, not getting better
> but not really getting much worse.  She hardly ever gets dressed, and its
> hard to get her to walk between the rooms of our house.  We have had some
> problems with bedsores where her spine curves high on her back, and had one
> scare with shingles, which were quickly treated.  Lately she has had some
> trouble with her eyes, and reading romance novels has been her chief
> pleasure for several years.  Mom's not much for doctoring, and we had a
> pretty poor experience with an orthopedic doctor (who probably should have
> spotted the Parkinsons) who gave her a couple of cortisone shots after she
> hurt her shoulder and only saw her as two bad knees and a bad shoulder.
>
> What should we do??  I want to take her to a neurologist--the nearest large
> city to me is Evansville, IN, where I hear there are several good doctors,
> including a Dr. Pain--what a name--but I don't want to put her through tests
> and medicines that won't do much good.  From reading some PD articles
> on-line it sounds like Mom is pretty far along on the standard scales of
> disability, and has a non-shaking form of the disease, which makes waiting
> for tremors to star a moot point.  Her system is pretty sensitive--she can't
> eat a lot of vegetables and fruit, and I don't know what she can tolerate
> since the PD diet is the exact opposite of what she has eaten for years.
>
> I don't know what I can contribute to this list, but hope to learn a lot
> from the rest of you.  Thanks for your patience.
>
> Cindy Birk Conley
> [log in to unmask]
> >From Southeastern Illinois to your modem!!
> >>http://www.midwest.net/scribers/cbconly

Cindy,

In this day and age of specialization no one should rely on a General
Practioner to treat Parkinson's Disease. I think a well trained
specialist in Parkinson's will be able to help you mother much more than
a GP. I suggest you look in your local phone book for the nearest APDA
Information and Referral Center and ask them to refer you to a doctor who
is a specialist in Parkinson's. You don't need your GP's permssion.

John Wiegard
Alexandria, VA CG for Dorothy 74/16