 |
 |
Dear Ms. Dean: It usually takes a long time before the deterioration you describes sets in. And by then there may be other therapies and procedures that will improve results, such as the pallidotomy and fetal transplant surgeries. Your mother (and you) should enjoy the good fortune of being among those for whom levadopa works. You can do many things now that you may not be able to do later, so you should enjoy all you can. It took about five years for my husband to begin feeling insecure enough (falling, etc.) that he didn't want to travel anymore, but those were very good five years. I wish at the time I had been better advised instead of thinking it might get better physically. That won't happen without new interventions (which are on the horizon, incidentally), but there are plenty of ways to make the best of what you've got, as you will see from the many interactions here on our network. Best of luck, k. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mrs. Karin M. Beros, MSO [log in to unmask] International and Area Studies voice: (510) 642-8542 Office of the Dean, 260 Stephens Hall fax: (510) 642-9466 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Tue, 2 May 1995, Jo Janet Dean wrote: > Hi--I'm Jo Janet Dean, a physics/engineering librarian at the Phillips Lab > Technical Library, Kirtland AFB, NM. My mother was diagnosed last year with > PD and it has changed all of our lives. The worst part was that it took many > doctors AGES to determine what was the matter and by then she was really bad. > She's on levadopa now and doing better but I've learned that won't last > forever and the drug itself may cause other side effects after awhile. I just > want to learn all I can so when I found this on the www I thought it may add > to what I've learned from the local university medical library and from > searching Medline and the Health Periodicals Index in Dialog. Any comments > will be greatly appreciated. My phone at home is 505/268-9355 and my work > number is 505/846-4769. Email is [log in to unmask] Fax at work is > 505/846-1194. Thanks for "listening" and for being out there. JJD. >