 |
 |
Hi - I'm Mark ( [log in to unmask] ) and only this week, I received the alarming news that my mother, age 57, has developped Parkinson's. We have relatively little information on the disease so far, and the diesease has seemed to only have a serious effect on my mother over the past year, and has progressed to a chronic back problem and arthritis - like conditions. Recently, it popped up as a spell of lost balance, and so, after all this time, and with the disease "hiding" under the auspices of arthritis, it was finally diagnosed for what it was. My concerns are many, but I'm unsure what to expect. I'm not sure what terrifies me the most, the prospect of the disease, or of L-DOPA and its side effects. My mother is currently under Kaiser - Permanente, which has always seemed to me to be managed care with questionable value, and I'm interested in hearing about what others who have faced this disease would reccomend doing to actively fight this disease and check its progress, as well as how best to achieve the highest possible standard of combatting the effects. How do you reccomend dealing with the effects of L-DOPA? Under what circumstances is it worth taking and not worth taking? What information and possibilities should we know about that managed-care medicine might not tell us about? I have heard some things about implanting of tissue into the damaged area, as well as something about a laser - operation, and if there is any way that the process of the disease can be stopped, slowed or cured, I'd like to know. We are located in the San Francisco bay area, and would also like to know whether there are any specialists or sources of information in the area that we should contact. Also, how should we expect the disease to progress, and how quickly? Even at it's outset, the disease has been very difficult on my mother. She recently sold her piano, since she no longer has the dexterity to play it, and this was especially hard on her since she used to be a concert pianist. She is more depressed than I have ever seen, and feels determined to take her life if the disease progresses fully. Please respond directly if possible and let me know more about her options, and especially about any important information that we probably should know from the start but might not have been told. My thanks - [log in to unmask]