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Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]> Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 10:55:45 -0800 From: Marie M Fox <[log in to unmask]> X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.01E-KIT (Win95; I) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: To introduce ourselves! Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mozilla-Status: 0005 My husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 1987. The diagnosis was recently changed to Shy Drager, characterized by orthostatic hypotension, bowel and bladder dysfunction, slowness of movement, but only very slight tremor. He currently takes Sinemet, Amantadine, Florinef and Sinemet CR. He used to take Eldepryl but that was discontinued because it affected his blood pressure adversely and was not compatible with some of the anesthetics he had for surgery to repair broken bones and a prosthesis. He does not respond very well to the Sinemet, so Amantadine was added to make movement easier. He has fallen numerous times, breaking bones in the process: ribs, hip, femur, hand. The prosthesis was a knee because of arthritis. The bladder and bowel dysfunction have become very pronounced. He is currently recovering from the broken femur and must be catheterized and have laxatives and enemas to keep these systems operating. The catheterization is worrisome, because it could introduce infection into the knee replacement area. I am certainly glad for this forum, because I am constantly having to educate the doctors who are treating him - many of whom have never heard of shy drager or multiple systems atropy. Currently, he is being treated by a urologist while he is in rehab and I had to tell him that Bill could not have Hytrin, because past experience with that drug sent his blood pressure plummeting. Thanks so much for adding me to this forum. Marie Fox