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Hello all. My sister-in-law just took my brother to the PD Dr. June 27 and he did not increase his dosage of Sinemet and Parolodol. John is on minimum (sinemet) dosage - 4 times a day 7 am, 11 am, 3 pm, 7 pm John is 6 ft. 2 in. and weighs 116 pounds. He is being fed by tube in the stomach since his episode with pneumonia - aspiration. John is now too weak to walk, cannot talk, and has a poor quality of life in the nursing home. They do not give him physical therapy. He has relatively little interaction with anyone until his wife comes late in the evening after work...she also goes by on the way to work. John was diagnosed PD about 5 years ago. The last 3 1/2 years he had been staying home with a sitter. Now with this feeding tube he has been placed in a nursing home. I have been out to see my brother in Dallas Texas twice within 3 1/2 months. When I left him in April he was reading the paper (maybe), alert, could walk with my help...we walked the corridors up and down...he took the remote control and recognized he had it upside down and would turn it around to begin using it....then flip continuously...(probably like I do at home), shake his head yes or no, smile, make some type of "face", seemed alert, could catch a ball and throw it back very hard - continuously and not tire, could squeeze my hand very hard...to the point of hurting, could latch onto my arm and would not let go....we had some good times together...but he could not talk, could not walk without help, and would not cooperate with the nursing staff. I tried to get him on physical therapy before I left - again. He had been on it but they said he had "reached his peak" and they had to take him off Medicare Physical Therapy. They agreed to put him back on if I demonstrated how I walked him. I took the two physical therapist (both women) and had them watch while I got him out of bed, got him up, and walked him. The two physical therapist looked frightened while I got him up. The "long" and "short" of it was that they could not do any more for him because they could not do physical therapy with John and he threatened them apparently. I asked for a male therapist and they said that was out of the question. Consequently, John is not getting any exercise. He is not active. In my opinion the two physical therapist were incompetent. But one was the head of the "company" that contracted with the nursing home. The question. If John has severe PD shouldn't he be taking more medication than what he is? According to the PD doctor his shaking is not noticeable...present medication seems to be doing the job for shaking. So he did not increase the medication. John has had all the classic symptoms of PD. Age 67. 1) Shuffling of feet since 1994. 2) voice gradually reduced in volume until no voice even though he appears to "lip" words, 3) Gradually lost his ability to walk. 4) His handwriting would be large until it "tailed off" to a very small scribble, 5) His shaking of the cup of drink would spill he was shaking so much (the shaking apparently has been controlled), 6) could not swallow very good from 1998-9 until now (he would get food backed up in his mouth and would finally swallow too much and choke. 7) his head used to shake but now I believe he is too weak to shake it 8) Began to swallow into his lungs so he had a stomach tube put in. 9) He has lost weight from 170 down to 116. He now appears to be very weak. It would appear John has classic PD - and severe. And medication does not appear to make any difference. We are going to try to get him into a PD clinic in Dallas (I thought when I left they were going to do that but the Clinic would not give John the DR requested - so his wife cancelled the appointment. Does anyone have any thoughts that could make a difference? Being in Georgia I cannot get out there very frequently. I have gotten some good ideas from your comments....but it appears I am the incompetent one in attempting to put all of this together. Question in the back of my mind - am I being a realist? Thank you, Larry ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn