Hello to all Parkinsnians,
Just a few observations on recent postings..
Russ Heliker wrote about malignant melanoma risk being increased by
Sinemet. This seems to be a small, but definite risk. Malignant melanoma is
a very specific skin cancer, dark (usually) and typically with irregular
borders, poorly demarcated by color change from the surrounding skin. It is
NOT the scaly, heaped-up skin changes that seem to accompany age (actinic
keratoses -"barnacles".) It takes (usually) a dermatologist to distinguish
which hyper-pigmented spots are worrisome enough to biopsy. Annually is the
periodicity of need for a dermatological consultation.
Health insurance and pre-existing conditions. Take-home message: Try
not to take it personally. It is a decision from an insurance company (don't
they always try to limit losses?) It has nothing to do with us, either as
lovely people nor with our shared disease. Choose your battle trenches by
your own criteria, but this one is largely Quixotic.
AD vs PD A psychiatrist recently described the differences in memory
problems this way. Forgetfulness about the names of people or objects is
common and normal. Forgetfulness about where recent objects were placed is
common and normal. Should these types of memory problems become so pervasive
as to cause a clear dysfunction in a person's life, not just an annoyance,
then they should be examined more carefully. Actual loss of ability to
function in normal daily tasks is the basic criterion for getting excited
about memory loss. He also used the part of the Mental Status Exam where the
patient is asked to count backward from 100 by 7s as an example of different
types of problems. A person who is not quick with numbers will struggle but
do it fairly well. A person with an organic dementia or possible medication
reactions will be confused and try to get another to help, distract from the
task, and finally when pressed, need to have it repeated and get it wrong in
some inconsistent ways. A person with depression will just flatly not care
about the answer. He said that he handles this patient by saying that they
can leave his office when they have answered this question. They then do it
and failry well or perfectly.
Yes, I'm afraid there has been the most unfortunate of side effects-
death- associated with pallidotomy. The good news continues to be not many.
Thank God.
Most everyone associated with our disease is upbeat, positive and
enthusiastic. So should we be. Peace be with us, and with you. Don Penny
