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Wow, Ira your absolutely right about that article. I can relate all to well to the contents that ER doctors have no background in PD and treat symptoms in the dark wasting time and money for the patient and possibly causing more harm than. good.My experience is just briefly related and just scratches the surface of the lack of PD comprehension in the Hospital. I went to the ER with an emergency situation. I fell off a horse that spooked. I had broken ribs and a damaged spleen and bruises everywhere because the ground was frozen hard. My wife took me to RapidCity Regional Hospital , a big and quote uptodate hospital for the midwest. My wife gathered up all my pills and stayed with me in the ER. I was on Eldeprlyl and Sinemet. These drugs have FATAL drug interactions. If I had been given Demerol , I would have been quite dead. It takes two weeks to get these drugs, because Eldepryl is a MAO/B inhibitor, out of the system for elective surgery to avoid becoming a vegetable from a simple surgery. Because of that , My wife and I had made ourselves familiar with drugs that I couldnt take that would harm me , like Nytol and more. If it had not been for her diligence I think I would have not have come home eventually. The first thing they did inspite of protests from my wife they cold turkeyed me on all of my pills. "We have doctors here to monitor him. He'll be alright now. Go to the waiting room" They tried to get my wife out of the way- not an easy thing to do. She questioned every med and asked if it was compatible with his drugs. At least once , they went back and got something else to give me in the ER. It was her first experience with the hospital since my PD had become dibilitating. She wasnt budging and I was incoherent from the accident and didnt know where I was at times. It was a weekend naturally. Finally she got a neurologist into the ER. It turned out he was from the same office as my regular neurologist. He at least scheduled my PD pills to staart again as soon as I was stabailized Finally four hours after I got into the ER they finally admitted me to a room now that I was stabalized. My Stay was unbearaable. If a pill was every 6 hours I Got It . It didnt matter whether I was sleeping or not.they gave the pills out on a 24 hour clock not on a while your up type clock . It was not uncommon to get a sinemet at midnigt while there. The stress , which is biggest enemy of PD , was unimaginable unless you have been there. For 6 days I was in intensive care , I was kept on a slanted bed at my insistancesince they wouldnt let me sleep on my side to reduce choking and saliva problems.. They wouldnt let me eat because of my injuries. they fed me sugar water IV until I looked like the Pillsbury dough Boy and had gained 40 pounds since admitance. Finally ,I was mercifully sent to a regular ward. My wife was with me constantly which is why I was home in 3 days not 5 weeks that they predicted. The care was so bad . They didnt roll me to prevent bedsores. or even help me with personal needs when my wife was gone. The staff was content to just leave me in bed all day instead of getting me up and walking again since my legs were uninjured in the accident. When she was there, she checked me over all of the time and made sure I wasnt off schedule since that is so important for the PD patient. My wife was the only person, while I was at the hospital that would take me for walks around the nurse's station to get my strength back. With all of the Tylenol 3 they fed me and lack of exercise, my personal needs were getting very backed up to no ones concern but mine. Very painful too It has been a year and half now and I still suffer from the edema caused by all of the IV fluids they felt were in my best interest. Since I was the patient , I was not given a choice at all in my care while there. Would I go again , Maybe not. Given a Choice , the ER is not for me anymore. In summary , Call your neurologist before you go if you can . The ER is not always your friend particularly when it doesnt know PD. Rob (56/52/36) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ira Wile" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, July 23, 2001 12:53 PM Subject: Use of the emergency room > The American Parkinson's Disease Association, Inc. Educational supplement #16 which was received today has an excellent article about not going to the emergency room. I highly recommend it. I do not have a scanner or would have included it. > > > > Best, > > Ira > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn