 |
 |
Jack, Your wife's story is unfortunately very typical of most doctor's reaction to a young-onset PD patient. They more often than not try to say your a head case and start pumping you full of anti-depressants and muscle relaxers. PD is the furthest thing from there mind unless your in your 80's. Many of them are in dire need of an "awakening" themselves! It sounds to me like your current movement disorder neuro is on the right track. Good luck Greg 47/3535 > ** Original Subject: Introduction > ** Original Sender: Jack and Jean Corzine <[log in to unmask]> > ** Original Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2000 15:29:25 -0500 > ** Original Message follows... > > Hello, > My wife has recently been to a local neurologist who specializes in muscle > disease and motion disorders. This is after going to a regular neurologist > for almost a month for what we had originally thought of as being > stress-related tremors to her right arm. The original dr. (we'll call him > Dr. A) prescribed Xanax at 0.25 mg three times a day for two weeks. After > only 3 doses we called the dr. on call for side effects consisting of > increased tremors, severe depression and chest pain. We were advised to take > her off of the Xanax and to take her to the emergency room for the chest > pains (the ER found nothing wrong with her heart). After taking her off of > the Xanax she returned to having just her right arm tremors. We saw Dr. A > and he set up a EMG for the following Friday to rule out a pinched nerve or > any other nerve damage (Jean had already had a MRI of the head and a EEG > along with 4 blood tests). The EMG showed normal function and Dr. A > prescribed Zoloft at 50 mg once per day for two weeks. He told us that there > were little to be concerned about with side effects and the drug would take > up to two weeks to show results. > > The very next night (after two doses) we were at a hockey game when Jean > started complaining about increased tremors in her right arm, muscle > contractions in her right leg and tremors in her right leg as well. We left > the game early to take her back into the ER where the E.R. Dr. called the > dr. on call for Dr. A's neurology group. Jean was prescribed Skelaxin 800 > mg. for relaxing the muscles. I took her back to see Dr. A the following > Monday (two days after the leg problems manifested. Dr. A saw us for about > 10 minutes (charged us $80 U.S.) and basically told us that we were not > giving the medicine time to take effect, that he thought it was just stress > (even though we had de-stressed our life as much as is possible) and that > he had no further answers for us. He did say that he would refer us to the > Dr. in Peoria for his recommendations (we will call him Dr. B for now). We > got our records from Dr. A only to find out that the majority of the history > that we had told him had been transcribed incorrectly. > > We went to Dr. B one week after seeing Dr. A for the last time. Dr. B did a > fairly thorough exam of Jean's arm and leg (Dr. A did not even exam Jean's > leg but felt that it was only "stress"). During the exam by Dr. B, he noted > stiffness and slowness in the leg and arm muscles on the right side of the > body as well as the tremors. He listened to us while we discussed different > aspects of this affliction and made the decision that he thought that it was > Parkinson's Disease. He has prescribed Symmetrel 100 mg. twice a day. Jean > has also mentioned a couple of instances of tremors to the head area but > they have not re-manifested since two instances last week. The symmetrel has > reduced the tremors to a more manageable state but she still has some > difficulty with walking (her right leg still "drags" and is slower to > maneuver). Dr. B has also mentioned having a PET scan done to see the > dopamine levels in the brain cells. We are curious as to exactly what the > PET scan is and whether or not it is actually useful for diagnosis. If > anyone has some expertise or experience in the PET scan we would appreciate > any information on it. > > My wife has just given me permission to mention her age so here goes.... she > is 32 and the mother of three currently (we have two of our own children and > one foster son). She is adopted so we do not have much in the way of family > history. We do have contact with her birth mother but have had no luck with > contact with her natural father. As far as we know there is no history of PD > in her family. I'm not real sure what else is relevant but I'm sure you will > let me know if I have left anything out. Thanks for listening. > > > > Jack and Jean Corzine > www.geocities.com/~fosterparents > Herp enthusiasts > Foster Parents > Proud mom and dad >** --------- End Original Message ----------- ** >