My mother is 83 with PD for the last 5 years. Up until last September, she was
living on her own and apparently functional although her short term memory and
conceptual abilities were declining. She was taking the following medications:
1 eldepryl
1/2 Sinemet on awakening
4 Sinemet CR 50/200's during the day
Last Fall after experiencing a very bad episode of confusion, she was taken off
Eldepryl and the early Sinemet and had her Sinemet CR dose reduced to 2/day,
and she seemed much better for a couple of months. However, before the end of
the year, her PD symptoms (tremor, difficulty walking, etc) were becoming more
troublesome and her Sinement dosage was increased again one at a time until a
few weeks ago when she was back to 1/2 Sinemet and 4 CR's but no Eldepryl.
She has suffered a very severe decline since the first of the year, with
increasing episodes of confusion, and general memory and conceptual loss, as
well as much less predictable response to Sinemet and increased incidence of
falling. We have had an MRI which indicated a minor stroke had taken place.
When she continued to decline, her neurologist ordered a CT scan to see if there
had been additonal stroke activity but this was negative. The neurologist
doesn't seem to want to do anything but manipulate the Sinemet dose, and has now
prescribed a mild sedative at bedtime because we cannot get her on a schedule of
sleeping at night and being wakeful during the day. Her aides and I believe
that a frequent need to urinate is contributing to her wakefulness at night.
Does anyone know a neurologist in the vicinity of Irvine (where she lives) or on
the West Side of LA (where I live) who is more willing to work with patients
to find the mix of medications that work best for her?
Carol Lemlein
