At 03:11 1998/12/22 -0800, you wrote:
>Hi,
>New to the List;PD friend set it up 4 me. Going in to USC Jan 13,99 for
>pallidotomy. Any helpful (or otherwise) comments anybody??? Diag. April
>'91, have dyskinesia, stiffness, freezing, postural problem (head drops
>fwd & dwn) & shortness of breath (idopathic pulmonary fibrosis.) Taking
>Tasmar, 50 mg 2X day (amplified dyskinesia); 1 lasix, 40 mg; 3 Sinemet
>25/100; 4 Sinimet CR 50/200, results so so. sleep most of the time--- in
>a fog, low energy. Hoping for better Quality of life.

hi stacey

if you have wwweb access,
there is a People With Parkinson's WebRing at:
<http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=parkie;list>
with over thirty pd links connected to it
[as created and maintained by jerry finch]

one of the links is the Parkinson Alliance site
[also created by jerry finch]
which has a section for the 'hole-in-the-head-gang'
i.e. those brave souls who have had brain surgery for their pd
[including several pallidotomy stories]

have you been tested for clinical depression [cd] ?
40 to 60% of all parkies have it
and sleeping too much, low energy, and fog-bound thinking
sound to me like prime symptoms of cd not pd
[i've been there; had/have both]

i have posted a lot of info on cd to the pd list
you can access it either through my web-site on the pwp web-ring
or through the pd list archives at:
<http://james.parkinsons.org.uk/>
[as created and maintained by simon coles]

off the top of my head,
8 years since diagnosis sounds pretty early in this game
to be considering brain surgery, especially a type that is non-reversible

have you had a thorough evaluation by another neuro?
preferably one connected to a movement disorder clinic?

it seems to me that your meds could be more finely tuned
if you are having trouble with both
freezing = too little dopamine
and
dyskinesia = too much dopamine

in addition
many anti-depressant medications can also help with pd symptoms
either directly or indirectly

my unsolicited advice:
if i were in your snow-shoes,
i'd adjust my bio-chemical-soup recipe,
before reformatting my hard drive
[just a little nerd joke!]

just a nosy non-medico and your cyber-sibling

janet

janet paterson - 51 now /41 dx /37 onset - almonte/ontario/canada
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