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When my first symptoms became noticeable I went to a military hospital to
find out what was wrong. The doctor there did not make any diagnosis but
referred me to the Neurology Department at Walter Reed AMC. By pure chance
I was assigned to the Chief of Neurology (Col Harper). I was his patient
for the next two years until he retired and learned quite a bit about PD
from him. At our last meeting before his retirement he said that he was
assigning me to an intern because I could teach him a lot about PD! (One
of the first things I taught him was the difference between MAO-A and
MAO-B since many drugs which interact with MAO-A do not interact with
MAO-B and Selegeline happens to be MAO-B)

About a year later military retirees in the DelMarVa area were placed
under an HMO system administered by Johns Hopkins and was told I could
select any neurologist at Johns Hopkins, so I selected Dr Stephen Reich
who specializes in PD. I have learned a lot from him also.

With both Drs. Harper and Reich I noticed one thing that set them apaart
from most other doctors--they took time to listen to their patients. In
fact, my appointments with Dr. Harper were 30 minutes long and about half
the time was spent in discussion.

Considering the difficulties some have had in finding a good neurologist I
feel that I am lucky. If your doctor is uncommunicative you should
initiate the discussion and ask any questions that might be bothering you.
And don't be afraid to point things out that your doctor may have missed.
You are the one who knows your body best.

Bruce <Starman>
55/9
Sinemet CR & Pramipexole

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Bruce G. Warr               "Experience is what enables us to recognize
Healthcare Informatics Lab   a mistake the next time we make it."
Information Systems Dept.
University of Maryland Baltimore County

http://umbc.edu/~warr/
(V) (410)455-3206
(F) (410)455-1073

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