 |
 |
B'S"D 1/16/97 Dear Friends, On Dec. 15, as planned, Aviva, in her 12th year with PD, was hospitalized for two weeks for what turned out to be a net, 11 day "drug holiday." >From what we are given to understand, drug holidays have been generally discontinued for something over a decade on the basis that the results tend to be short-lived, the suffering of the patient during the drug holiday is excessive and, also, presumably, because the cost of hospitalization is substantial. There was resistance to the idea of this experiment from Aviva's two neuros and the insurance company in spite of the fact that, after 12 years, her meds, over a period of a month or so, had suddenly lost something like 80% of their effectiveness. Only when we emphasized that the experiment was aimed at detoxification in connection with Aviva's acute cerebellar atrophy and that any benefit for her Parkinsons symptoms would be considered a mere bonus did they reluctantly agree. On entering the hospital and in order to maximize the benefit from her stay, Aviva went off her drugs "cold turkey," with her doctor's consent, rather than gradually as originally contemplated. After 3 days, her state stabilized which indicated to us that she was "drug free," at least superficially. The whole medical staff was amazed at Aviva's apparently exceptional resistance to suffering and the fact that there was little rigidity in her face and body even at the end of the drug holiday. They acknowledged that her March 1995 bilateral pallidotomy (Loma Linda) was probably a big part of the explanation. Three days before her discharge from hospital, Aviva started up on low doses of her meds and displayed a tendency to want to undermedicate herself which was evident from the lack of dyskinesia on the side where the pallidotomy was less successful. (There is no dyskinesia on the successful side.) Now, 18 days after discharge from hospital, Aviva is still responding well to her meds and is optimally medicated (displaying dyskenesia) at half her former dosage of L-Dopa. If it turns out that extended drug holidays (10 days and more) provide prolonged benefits, another blessing of pallidotomy will have been revealed. We'll keep you posted on developments. Blessings, David David S. Devor, Exec. Director Project Mind Foundation - Keren Mivtsa Mochin 8 Mevo Hamaavak French Hill tel: 972/2/5814941 Jerusalem 97877 fax: 972/2/5823276 Israel email: [log in to unmask] www.webscope.com/project_mind/project_mind.html