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My mother woke up two days ago with a sore throat.    Her caregiver brought
her to the doctor's office.  While she was there she passed out and it was
difficult to feel her pulse. After she came to, we took her to the hospital to
rule out any heart problem.

In the hospital I was scolded because I was giving her medication.  I told
the nurse very forcefully..."I am in charge of my mother's well being and I will
give her what I need to to keep her well".  From previous experience I knew
that patients are never given their meds on time, if at all.  If they nurse
doesn't have one of the meds at the moment..they just skip it.

The doctors and nurses were all very nice BUT the system isn't set up
to deal with PD patients especially elderly ones with dementia. AS we all
know, It ios crucial to give PD patients their meds on a fairly tight schedule.
In my mother's case, she takes carbidopa 25/100 and sinemet 25/100 ER at the
same time.  Since they are both carbidopa, the hospital only gives her one pill
no matter what we explain or insist on. The internist ,who was covering for
our doctor, didn't write it down correctly after I explained it carefully.

They didn't have a bed available for her  so she remained in the ER room for
24 hours.  She wasn't able to take her normal naps and was overly stimulated.
I did make sure they provided a FREE one on one caregiver for her so that
ours could go home and get some rest.  I've gotten very good at doing this.

My mother is fine, no heart condition.  She has an infection that might be
pneumonia.  She's on an antibiotic that I made sure was not one that makes a PD
patient dillusional....some do like Leviquil. I made it clear that I was going
to bring her right home without any additional hospital stay.

My mother was totally dillussional from it all.  I know that she will be
okay.  She is already coming back. I have the name of someone in administration
that I am calling tomorrow.  I want to see changes in PD patients' care.  I want
the nurses and doctor's to be trained to handle these patients in the manner
that they need to be dealt with.

If meds cannot be given on time, atleast administer these patient's meds
first because they will greatly suffer if they are too late.  If at all possible,
they need to put these patient's somewhere less chaotic and noisy.  I can go
on and on.  I will make sure that things change at Huntington Hospital, on Long
Island.

Is there any literature that anyone knows of that we can all give to our
local hospitals to educate them?  I don't believe that we should allow them to
contnue treating PD patients like this.

My Best to all...

Linda

c/g to my mother Esther dg 11 years ago almost 83




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