 |
 |
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