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Great survey. Thanks for all that work! My mother was extremely intelligent, fit and active with NO signs of Parkinsonism until age 75. She worked 35 hours per week in a busy, upscale pharmacy and could do the entire NY Times crossword puzzle using only the "across" clues. She had a voluntary hip replacement at age 76 and had an EXTREMELY BAD reaction to the anesthesia and post-op meds. For two days she was very agitated and irrational with little knowledge of her surroundings. She hallucinated, refused to eat and had to be sedated. She was never the same. Her general health deteriorated, she could no longer run the cash register or remember products and prices, could not complete puzzles. Her IQ dropped so dramatically that she lost her job, and she was hardly able to shop and cook. A year later, she fell and broke her femur resulting in a 5.5 hour surgery and 3 days of post-op hallucinations, and even worse agitation. Heavy sedation resulted in dangerously low blood oxygen levels. She was hospitalized for one week, then transferred to a nursing home for a month where she lost 12 pounds because of heavy sedation for her rising anxiety. She lost close to half of her remaining intellectual and memory abilities. Because she cannot live on her own, her identical twin sister takes care of her. They have lived within one block of each other for 40+ years eating approximately the same diet and walking 5 miles together each morning. It is heartbreaking to see my aunt still whole and functioning exceptionally well for a 79-year old while my mother declines rapidly into frailty and senility. Her doctor calls her condition Parkinson's and has her on Sinemet and Requip. They don't seem to help much at all and we are sure her condition is generic drug- and low oxygen-induced brain damage. Her only other questionable exposure was to several rounds of backyard insecticide spraying for fleas just before she fell down. Farmers are 43% more likely to get PD (http://www.organicconsumers.org/OFGU/parkinsons060105.cfm) due to pesticide exposure. If I were running the survey, I'd ask how many times a person has been "put under" and for how long. I'd ask if they'd ever experienced periods of low blood oxygen levels due to severe sleep apnea, sedation, etc. I'd also ask them about pesticide use and exposure (such as during the controversial malathion sprayings in California). Even the casual backyard gardener is statistically much more likely to get PD. I'm betting many people's PD is the tragic result of a combination of low blood oxygen during and after surgery plus a disastrously bad brain tissue reaction to certain chemicals -- including anesthetics, sedatives and pesticides -- and/or combinations thereof. ~ Greyling Gentry -----Original Message----- From: Parkinson's Information Exchange Network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Maxine Krugman Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 12:07 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: website survey please take another look at the survey and see if it is easier now..and please let me know thanks 'maxine www.parkinsonsacramento.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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