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Dear Compadres, Thanks to reading this list for the past month, I have been able to determine that it was time to intervene in my grandmother's care or lack of it!. She is 79 years old and has had PD for the past 18 years. In the past year and a half she has failed considerably. After educating myself through this list about exactly what's involved with PD I knew I had to move into action to enhance her quality of life. So I contacted the Visiting Nurse Association and they informed me to go to her family Dr. first and get a referral for their care. Which I did and my only regret is that I didn't do this a year ago, when she first started to go down hill. These people are wonderful to deal with!!! Within 2 days of speaking with her Dr. they responded to my concerns and had a nurse over to my grandparents' house to do an evaluation of her. As I suspected she has been undermedicated, undernourished and having a hell of a time surving the daily rigors of life. We further investigated the Sinement CR dilemma (to break or not) and according to two pharmicists the 25/100 pill should not be broken but the 50/200 is ok to break, well she somehow got the wrong dosage and was breaking her 25/100 pills and as a result they weren't doing much for her. I also discovered that her neurologist seems to be quite negligent in her care ( making her wait over an hour and then rushing her in and out in 10 minutes) so we are going to the only other neurologist in town, his partner, to get a second opinion and hopefully he will see that she deserves more than a 10 minute visit and somebody to go over her medications with her to make sure that they are being taken correctly. She has lost 32 lbs. in the last year and a half and was spending her days lying in bed because she was too frozen to get up out of it and meanwhile trying to be optimistic even tho she can't stop crying, she has been experiencing constant stomach pains along with consitpation problems and he doesn't seem to be concerned about all of this!! (The visiting nurse right away recommended a multi-vitamin and a stool softener.) Anyway- yes I am angry, because she and we all do, deserve better than this - we are paying for their services are we not? But on the bright side, the Visiting Nurse services sent over a Social worker who informed them of the COPES financial aid plan that assists seniors with the costs of home care, and she provided much needed information about cooking services, bath aides and housekeeping. So we signed up for everything! They also have an Occupational therapist that will come and evaluate their home and make suggestions on how to make it more handicap accessible. And tonight she has a Physical therapist coming over to assist with a exercise program that she'll be able to do safely at home. Most of these services (excluding the cook & housecleaning) Medicare will pay 100% - for the other services, cost run between $11-16 per hour. So if you know of someone who is housebound and you see them declining from life - help them connect with these people it could make all the difference!! Thank you so much for all of the wonderful information and for sharing your personal experiences, it has helped me help and understand someone I love dearly! Sincerely, Laurie Caskey-Schreiber (Grandaughter to Amelia) [log in to unmask]