hi all

At 22:04 1999/07/01 -0700, rosemary wrote, in part:
>... He has had another episode.  This time he was in the bathroom
>shaving and I heard him fall.  Apparently he just fell against the wall
>because he was standing when I got in there.  But he was about to go down
>so I helped him get to his bed as quickly as I could. His symptoms were
>exactly like they were a week ago when he couldn't move to get up except
>that this time he was moving albeit slowly.  He didn't appear to be rigid.
>He was somewhat incoherant, very weak, confused and he can't remember now
>some of the things that happened. Figuering it was PD related I didn't
>immediately do anything but he didn't seem to snap out of it and so I
>called his doctor. He said to wait about 30 minutes and if there was no
>change to get him to the hospital. He still seemed about the same but
>insisted he didn't want go in an ambulance so I got him my mother's walker
>and he made it out to the car...

so, he was somewhat confused,
but not so bad that he couldn't assert himself...

>At the hospital they took all kinds of heart tests.  Seems his heart rate
>was way down.  He had a complete cardiac work-up and everything was normal.
>He came home today.  Still seems extra weak but is getting around slowly.
>
>If PD can cause the digestive system to work sluggishly isn't it logical
>that the heart might also be sluggish at times? ...

nope, i don't think so
even though we're still talking muscles

it's something to to with voluntary and involuntary activity
and the neurotransmitters that control such matters

we don't have to think about when to breathe in and out
and when to pump out blood through our hearts
all that is done for us automatically

the gut i think is quite a different matter altogether
strangely enough, it is rumoured to have a brain all to itself
and also uses dopamine [i'm not making this up!]

i don't know the implications of a low heart rate
but confusion and incoherence and temporary loss of memory
speak to me of medication side-effects or drug interactions
...
and then you go on to tell us:

>My other concern is that I had to get his medication to take to
>the hospital and I found his medicines in a mess. It makes me
>think perhaps he has not been taking the right dosages...

and my alarm bells start ringing
we're not talking aspirin here

an error like
taking 'two of these'instead of 'two of those'
could easily have contributed to the condition he's in
if he's confusing several medications, particularly brain chemistry
'adjusters'

and he could get himself into a cognitive downward spiral
confusion leading to more med errors
leading to more confusion

this is serious and potentially dangerous stuff
if you haven't read it yet, go read 'joe's story' on my website

i become more convinced every day
that it is absolutely required reading for all pd people

>The thing is that he worries about not taking the right meds
>so much that he is always double checking his layout...

this also doesn't sound good; from the way you describe it,
he's showing some obsessiveness here that's not based on realistic needs

>He puts them in individual bottles for four days at a time and it
>is a good system if it works right. I hate to have to take over
>another one of his jobs so I will just oversee it for a while and
>see how it goes. ...

this might not be a matter of taking over 'yet another' one of 'his jobs'
this might be a matter of ensuring his brain chemistry med intake
doesn't endanger his cognitive and/or physical health

i.e. not part of an 'inevitable' decline
but a temporary state of emergency
caused by chemical imbalance

[which might explain why
his 'attack' last week resulted in immobility
and his 'attack' this week did not]


please let us know how things go

janet

janet paterson
52 now / 41 dx / 37 onset
PO Box 171  Almonte  Ontario  K0A 1A0  Canada
a new voice <http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Village/6263/>
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