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Well said, Edith. After a fatalist, an egotist and a know-it-all, we have a wonderful neuro now (one who really listens) but, as you say, nothing is perfect. It IS difficult to get through "in between times." Such is life . . . a balancing act. Carole M. ;-) -----Original Message----- From: edith love <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> Date: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 9:38 PM Subject: The Neuro Experience-From Where I Stand; Part 1 >Dear Bob and Janine, > >I've been grappling with your off-the-wall, unbelievable experience since >you posted. To travel that far under normal conditions would be difficult. >To travel that far and to be treated so poorly is inexcusable! > >For what it's worth, you two, I'd surely like to see what would happen if >you sent your post to the doctor, the hospital administration and the state >medical board. >Are you game? > >With your permission, I'd like to share my entrance into the world of >neurological >"What do you have?" > > At some point in the Fall of 1995, my retirement year, not too long after >school started, I awoke one Sunday out of the blue and couldn't move. >Frankly, I was too mystified/petrified to figure time length-I'd had no >warning signs. > >When whatever it was passed, my arms dangled at my sides like an ape's, my >body was quite stiff and my ability to walk was impaired. I had classes to >teach, and my 32nd year to complete. > >Prior to this experience, I'd had my yearly checkup. Since I had been >diagnosed with Epstein Barr years before, had a few other symptoms to deal >with and since tests came out ok, my internist figured I was just fatigued. >At soon to be 65, I was doing the usual--working too hard. The one thing he >didn't see was how I walked. > >How I did it I still don't know. It was a beautifully successful school >year. Yet I can only remember praying that I could get from my classroom to >the school library! > >It was the night of my retirement party, maybe six months later, that the >doc saw me walk. He apologized profusely and said that we'd set up an >appointment with the clinic's neuro. And so he did. > >By then I had checked medical books and knew my symptoms seemed to fit the >PD profile. Loaded with the information I had, I went to my appointment. >The doctor's name was Hope. That was all I needed. When he walked in, I >said, "Your name is Hope and my name is Love. Perhaps together, we can >discover what is wrong with me." > >He became infuriated. Life in the " little room" went down hill from there. >I was >"examined" for what should have been 20 minutes (I checked my watch). The >doctor took off 5 of those minutes to either check a resource or to go to >the bathroom. I'm not sure which. At the conclusion of nothing, he looked >at me and said (and this is verbatim) "There's nothing wrong with you. >You are old . Your body has taken some lumps. You'll just have to learn to >compensate." With that, he left the examining room. > >I was stunned. By then in tears, I left the room with my good-old list in >my hand. > >The next day, teary eyed I called my internist. What followed three months >later was a 2 1/2 hour, extremely complete examination at the university >neuro clinic where >I was diagnosed as, "It could be PD." > >That was about 6+ years ago. Since that time, as most of you know, the >Stranger Within is a no name, and as long as I, and others like me, are >assigned to the PD umbrella, no one will ever find truth should there be >such! That, however, is not the purpose of this epistle. > >My second neuro retired. Now, I am privileged to have an extremely >intelligent, sincere, caring neuro who refuses no one, is ready to do >anything for a patient during appointment time, but can seldom if ever be >reached in between because of the need for this doctor's specially which is >PD. Life isn't perfect. We are strange bedfellows. I'm a clinical study. >This is a neuro I trust. > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >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