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Tom went to the doctor yesterday because of several falls he has had over
the last few weeks.  The first occurred two weeks ago when he was taking
out the garbage.  There is an incline from the street to the house.  He
rolled when he fell, and though a little sore, he seemed okay.  Last week
he fell again "because he hadn't lifted his feet high enough."  He has been
in denial for a long long time and wouldn't call the dr.  I went to work
upset, which I don't need in that situation.  I decided to call him and ask
him to call the doctor for me.  It was that easy.

He made the appointment for yesterday, and since I was not feeling well and
did not go to work, I went with him.  He had fallen again inside on
Saturday and seemed to accept better that it was due to pd.   On the way
iinto the doctor's office, we both noticed his foot scrapping the concrete.
  The doctor spent very little time--squeezed in appt--and said Tom is
getting worse.  He is having neurological tests on his leg next week.  And
the doctor started him on mirapex.  He is also on the following meds [from
his notes]:

sinemet 50/200 2/day
Eldepryl  5 mg  2/day
Propanelol LA  120 mg 1/day
Klonopin .5   3/day

For other problems including depression, hypertension, and atrial
fibrillation:

Zoloft  150mg/day  depression
Prinivil 20 mg  blood pressure
Rythmol 225 mg 1 2x/day  fibrillation
Dyazide   75/50 1/day  bp
Aspirin 1/day (clot prevention)
Atrohist 0.24 2/day allergy

I'm going to go back and read all the postings about mirapex.   Tom has
never had anyone give him information on nutrition except a friend who also
has pd and the WalMart pharmacist.  What should he avoid?  Besides msg and
aspartame, he also cannot have any chocolate, coffee (even decaf starts the
fibrillation), alcohol, cheese, etc.

Another thing that has been hard for both of us is that money is so tight.
He hasn't worked since December and bills had been high after our move.
And we had to move again for our landlord decided to sell the house for
more money than we could afford.  so we bought another after borrowing
against my Thrift Savings Account.    We still were having money problems
and the contracting out was still under study.   Right now our big night on
the town is to eat at Ryans alternate weeks.

Tom had applied for disability and was turned down in the spring.  Instead
of appealing, he reapplied in August and we have been waiting to hear.
It's been what we will be late on this month?  But happy days!  When we got
home we had something from SSI and they decided he is disabled and has been
since he was laid off!    So now, he is a contributor to the household, we
don't have to be quite as frugal, and best of all, we don't have to fight
the SS Admin.  We won't get rich, but we'll be less in debt!  Hooray!

Although it has been primarily the move from Wichita to Charleston that set
us on the deficit road, it has been great for both of us to be out of
Wichita, especially away from the "neighbor from hell" or "lawn nazi" who
couldn't understand why Tom wasn't mowing 3 x per week and why anyone would
want to feed birds.

Ann Moore
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