To: [log in to unmask]
PM4From: Paul Millikin <[log in to unmask]>
4Subject: Any ET's out there?
4Comments: To: All <[log in to unmask]>
4To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN
<[log in to unmask]>
PM4 Hello, everybody! My name is Paul Millikin, and I'm a 71 year
4 old semi-retired pathologist, now a part-time volunteer at the
4 University of Illinois School of Medicine at Peoria, known as UICOMP.
PM4 My wife has Parkinson-LIKE symptoms, including a tremor and gait
4 problems, but so far there has been no response to Eldepryl, Sinemet
4 or l-dopa. Best guess, according to the gurus, is that she has a
4 somewhat obscure familial disease, because her father died at age 68
4 with similar symptoms. They call it ET, for Essential Tremor, meaning
4 a tremor that they don't know anything about.
PM4 That suggested that there might be quite a few people with ET who
4 part of this group. If there are, I would be interested to hear
4 them. Although I'm a doctor, I'm slogging through a medical No-
4 land when it comes to ET. There don't seem to be a whole lot of
4 on the subject.
Paul, there a at least a few of us out here that have Essential
Familial Tremors and have lived to tell about it.
The following book that is in your library does a pretty good job of
describing all of the current knowledge of EFT and for that matter
Parkinson's.
Lieberman, Abraham N., M.D., and Williams, Frank L., Parkinson's
Disease:
The Complete Guide For Patients And Caregivers. New York: Simon &
Schuster,
1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Complete Guide For Patients And Caregivers, is the most current, best
organized reference that envelopes the Parkinsonian issue in one document.
The copyright date is 1993.
Dr. Lieberman's credentials include being Chairman of the Medical Advisory
Board of the American Parkinson's Disease Association. Frank L. Williams,
the co-author, is the Executive Director of the American Parkinson's
Disease Assoc.
Although, Dr. Lieberman's and Mr. Williams names grace the cover, this is
a cooperative effort with nursing, social work, legal and nutritionist
contributions.
Who gets Parkinson Disease?, is also a topic of discussion.
I believe this is the chapter that discusses EFT and relates it to the
age of the relative that exhibited EFT symptoms. In my case, my father
was in his 70s when he first exhibited tremors. In my case only about
5% ever turn into later diagnosis of Parkinson's.
In the stages of progression, some neurologists use the Hoehn-Yahr Scale
to determine what level of treatment is necessary.
Stage 0 no visible disease
Stage 1 disease involves one side of the body
Stage 2 disease involves both sides of the body, but
does not impair balance
Stage 3 disease impairs balance or walking
Stage 4 disease markedly impairs balance or walking
Stage 5 disease results in complete immobility
I started having symptoms when I was in my middle 20s while I was in
college. After college and while engaged in political activity which
required public speaking the tremors became more pronounced and cut
short a promising endeavor. I was about at Stage 1 on the scale.
Now that I am in my early 50s, I have recently advanced to between
Stage 2 and 3. On any given day I may have a tremor of the head and
both arms. Since I occasionally work from a ladder, I have to watch
my balance "very carefully". Paul, you know when we get older, our
tools don't work as well<g>, I have to use my body to brace my arm
against something to use wrenches and my torch. I don't know what my
customers think.
My symptoms are minimal in the morning and can peak in the afternoon
and evening and stress or fatigue can heighten them.
I have always been part of the "seasonal working poor" that have
endured rather than seek medical help cause of the lack of insurance
and the necessities of shoes for the kids and food on the table seemed
to be more pressing at the time. Since the "little terrorists" are
now terrorizing their own homes now and the wife has since moved on to
greener pastures, I have suddenly discovered that stress is now almost
minimal in my life.
For the last 5 years I have been able to see my neurologist about once
a year. Naturally, since I am a cash patient, the workup on my
condition is incomplete, ie..MRI, PET etc because of the lack of
resources. For about the last three years I have been on
INDERAL(propranalol) which works marginally. The neurologist worked
z
Continued in the next message...
---
~ 1st 1.10 #803 ~
