Hi Michel: I don't know what to say...Your life makes mine
look like a piece of cake. My best to Barbara. Please keep
us posted on her progress. I enjoyed your Humor in Hell, if
the world enjoyed can be in that context. It does speak to
the resilience of the human spirit, though, doesn't it?
Carole H.
--- Michel Margosis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> It has been some time since I gave you an update of our
> conditions. The
> computer is no substitute for personal contact and
> perception may be in
> error or misread from a screen. But, in terms of
> maintaining contact
> over vast distances, pulling a family and friends
> together and sharing,
> this device is a wonderful thing.
>
> The latest news on the Parkinson's Disease community is
> just great and
> very exciting. Word is that the NIH neurological section
> under Dr.
> Fishbach will now focus its efforts on finding the cure
> for the disease,
> and it has good support from Capitol Hill. The efforts
> from the various
> support groups working jointly under PAN with great new
> support from
> movie stars like Michael J. Fox, are bearing fruits for
> the near future.
>
> It is the intervening time for Barbara and those already
> afflicted that
> worries me. Barbara has had PD now for about ten years,
> or more
> accurately has been diagnosed about ten years ago with
> the disease well
> entrenched by then. It is claimed that by the time a
> patient is
> diagnosed, 80% of the Substantia Nigra cells, where
> dopamine is
> synthesized, are dead or totally dormant. Barbara can no
> longer walk
> safely without support, at least a cane, but preferably a
> rolling type
> walker. Yet, to tempt the fates or because of the
> spontaneity of the
> moment, she will inevitably venture out to the door or
> the kitchen or
> whatever, without that support,...and she will fall from
> the propulsion
> or retropulsion component of the disease.
>
> Barbara was released from the hospital she hit the
> kitchen floor when
> they detected no serious injury. However, when Barbara
> complained of
> frequent pains in the head, neck, and shoulder, our
> neurologist, Dr.
> Linda Sigmund sent her for MRI test. After viewing the
> results, the
> doctor sent her for additional X-rays, and then to a
> neurosurgeon for
> confirmation. There was indeed an injury caused by the
> falls: the Ray
> clearly showed one of the vertebrae in the upper spine to
> be displaced
> and probably fractured. This injury is probably
> exacerbated by the
> dyskinesia, the extra involuntary movements, caused by
> the multiplicity
> of medication. Therefore, Barbara is scheduled to go to
> Fairfax hospital
> this Tuesday morning for additional MRI, X-ray, and blood
> tests and
> surgery in the late afternoon, if hospital conditions
> allow, meaning
> availability of an operating room. The proposed surgery
> as it stands
> now is to fuse two vertebrae and pin them to a metal
> plate.
>
> I am doing fine. The day before meeting with the
> neurosurgeon, I
> checked the operation of a second glucometer (the first
> was not giving
> correct readings) after running from lab to lab
> collecting papers and
> films for the said meeting. I had become a casualty of
> Mr. Diabetics,
> and my blood sugar that morning shot to 222. My coronary
> bypass of last
> was a complete success, according to my cardiologist,
> except for the
> cellulitis that has plagued me since. I have not played
> pickle-ball
> since then, nor exercised enough, and drink only about
> one shot of
> Scotch a week, at our social (previously named Happy)
> hour. I am taking
> and guiding a group of the Greenspring residents to the
> Holocaust
> memorial museum in a month, and I already have my full
> complement for
> the bus. I will not likely respond to phone calls, though
> I am doing
> fine!
> With love to you all,
> Michel
>
=====
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