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Hey Larry, My name is Pat Higgo and I'm a Registered Massage Therapist who does a lot of lurking on PIENO. I pulled out my text books from college, I think you may be refering to Amyloidosis. "There are 2 major forms of this disease in which a waxy, starchlike glycoprotein (Amyloid) accumulates in tissues and organs impairing their function." I'm quoting this from a medical dictionary so if none of it makes sense, please let me know and i'll do my best to explain it to you. "Primary Amyloidosis usually occurs with multiple myeloma. Patient with Secondary Amyloidosis usually suffer from another chronic infectious or inflammatory disease, such as tuberculosis, osteomyelitis, rheumatoid arthritis or Crohn's disease. The cause of both types of Amyloidosis is unknown. Almost all organs are affected, most often the heart, lungs, tongue and intestines in Primary Amyloidosis and the kidneys, liver and spleen in the secondary type. Elderly patients tend to experience cardiac effects of the disease. Diagnosis is made through biopsy of the suspected organ. There is no known cure for Amyloidosis, and treatment in the secondary type is aimed at alleviating the underlying chronic disease. Patients with renal Amyloidosis are frequently candidates for kidney dialysis and transplantation." (Mosby's Medical, nursing & Allied Health Dictionary; 1994) As to the state of your brother's tendons, the best advice I can give you is to find a massage therapist who is experienced working with mobility issues. I'm not going to tell you that the doctor is wrong because I don't know that he is. There are things that a massage therapist can do to soften the ligaments and to help maintain what range of motion your brother still has. It's possible that your brother may not walk again, I don't want to give you false hope. I'm thinking that it would wise to give it a try anyways, even if only to know that every possible angle was explored. I wish you the best of luck. If there is anything I can help you with, please let me know. Peace Pat ----- Original Message ----- From: "Larry Wilson" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Saturday, September 07, 2002 9:50 PM Subject: Question My (PD) brother went into the hospital with aspiration pneumonia and has been put back into the nursing home after taking about 2 weeks in the hospital for recuperation. He has a feeding tube (PEG) in his stomach. It was suspected the nursing home had been letting him lay down during feeding. He seems to be getting well now. John is about 1000 miles from me. When I left him in April he was walking with assistance and we had fun walking around the nursing home. Since that time he has not walked and when he went to see a PD DR recently the DR said he may not be able to walk again because his ligaments had formed permanently and could not stretch now. (Sorry about the vagueness but I can't recall what his wife said exactly when she took him to the DR). While he was in the hospital the DR found a rare blood disease that affects the heart. The disease is called Amaloid (I hope that is the correct spelling). I tried to look this up but could not find much on it. Does anybody know about this disease and how it may affect PD patients?? Thank you, Larry Wilson Georgia ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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