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Sheila, Welcome to the List. My cousin has PTSD from Nam. He says Viet Cong and Americans with the tops of their heads blown off are his "family" and loud noises put him back in battle. He doesn't have PD (he is the youngest of my cousins, I am the oldest) and has been able to help lots of his fellow vets, but is still fighting that awful war. I can send you his email if you want to contact him as he is one great guy and maybe could be of help. There is one school of thought that suggests PD is caused by pesticides/chemicals, making exposure to Agent Orange a possibility. Maryse Schild is a List CG who will put you in touch with the CG site. His case seems particularly complex. Best wishes and I hope we can be of help. Ray ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sheila T" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 6:12 AM Subject: newcomer > Hello, > I've just joined this list in the last couple of days. I found the site > after combing the internet for information about Parkinson's. My husband > was diagnosed last Friday, I don't know if this is the right place for me > as > a 'caregiver'. It seems the posts I've read so far are mostly from those > of > you who are afflicted with this terrible disease yourselves. > But I do have a few questions that hopefully someone will be kind enough > to > reply to: > > 1. My husband has been prescribed rasagaline (Azilect) which has > apparently > just recently been approved by the FDA. Does anyone have experience with > this drug? > > 2. He was also diagnosed with combat PTSD resulting from his time in > Vietnam in the late 60's. - This condition flared up when the war in Iraq > flared up about 3 years ago. If you're unfamiliar - this involves > hallucinations, flashbacks, losing touch with reality in the sense that > sometimes he didn't know if he was here, or back there in the midst of > gunfire.. The initial barrage pf drugs they gave him (including Depakote > and Respirdol) turned him zombie-like overnight - stooped posture, > shuffling > gate, voice change, lack of affect and what had been a very minor tremor > in > one hand quickly escaleted to both arms. These I recognize now as > Parkinson's symptoms, but they were drug induced. The mds were > purposefully > lowering his dopamine levels to stop the PTSD symptoms. > Over the course of a year, they adjusted those meds and his Parkinson-like > symptoms abated, except for the tremors, voice and occasional affect > issue. > It seems that these two conditions are at odds with each other in terms of > medication. Does anyone else have both conditions? > I would love to hear from anyone with info about these two topics. > Also would love to hear from caregivers, if there are any here - or some > direction to a better site for that purpose... :-) > Sorry if I have gone on too long, I have never joined a list before. > Thanks for any advice or info. > Sheila > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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