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Rosemary,
Regarding the medication confusion, I solved that after finding my husband
sitting on the bed crying in frustration because he couldn't figure out the
dosages, etc.  I make pill packs a week at a time and then he takes them
himself.  He was very grateful to have that responsibility shifted to me.
Each pack is labeled for the day, then I labeled each cell by time.  I'm
sorry I didn't do that sooner for him, but we learn something every day.
The stress of worrying about his meds was counterproductive.  Also, if he
can't remember whether he took a dose, you can look at the pill pack and
see if the cell is empty. It also helps plan ahead for ordering more rx.

I'm sure many other people are doing the same thing.

Claire for Tom 54/46dx

At 10:04 PM 7/1/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Hi,  I appreciated the responses I got when I asked about PD freezing while
>in bed.  He has had another episode.  This time he was in the bathroom
>shaving and I heard him fall.  Apparently he just fell against the wall
>because he was standing when I got in there.  But he was about to go down
>so I helped him get to his bed as quickly as I could. His symptoms were
>exactly like they were a week ago when he couldn't move to get up except
>that this time he was moving albeit slowly.  He didn't appear to be rigid.
>He was somewhat incoherant, very weak, confused and he can't remember now
>some of the things that happened.  Figuering it was PD related I didn't
>immediately do anything but he didn't seem to snap out of it and so I
>called his doctor.  He said to wait about 30 minutes and if there was no
>change to get him to the hospital.  He still seemed about the same but
>insisted he didn't want go in an ambulance so I got him my mother's walker
>and he made it out to the car.
>
>At the hospital they took all kinds of heart tests.  Seems his heart rate
>was way down.  He had a complete cardiac work-up and everything was normal.
> He came home today.  Still seems extra weak but is getting around slowly.
>
>If PD can cause the digestive system to work sluggishly isn't it logical
>that the heart might also be sluggish at times?  Has anyone had this kind
>of an experience?
>
>My other concern is that I had to get his medication to take to the
>hospital and I found his medicines in a mess.  It makes me think perhaps he
>has not been taking the right dosages.  The thing is that he worries about
>not taking the right meds so much that he is always double checking his
>layout. He puts them in individual bottles for four days at a time and it
>is a good system if it works right. I hate to have to take over another one
>of his jobs so I will just oversee it for a while and see how it goes.
>
>Thanks for listening.  Rosemary c/partner for Dex 75/6
>
>