Cognitive Tests - etc.

[Guest guest]

Hi W,

Thanks for your note. Joe had problems, as I said, after the April 1996 surgery, and we went from doctor to doctor and test to test to try to find out why he was having [slight then] problems with his memory, and double vision. He started to hunch over to look down where he was going, but I thought that was the eyes. He also moved about half speed and seemed, at times, physically uncoorinated. In late 1998, our internist noted that he thought Joe might possibly have Parkinsons. We went to a local neurologist, who is very attentive and nice, and since we also were going for Joe's migraines [a lifetime thing where he took every medication they gave him for 50 years, and ended up the last 10 years on an ergot suppository every day to function], the neurologist went after the migraines and got them all settled down. He stayed off all medication for 6 months first.

I had written an extensive letter to that same neurologist listing all the different symptoms Joe had in March of 1999 -

and I want to interject that I pulled that letter out today and Joe still has the same exact problems:

Confused with what he sees: example: folding a bed sheet knowing there are four corners but his eyes or brain on ly see three. Visual hallucinations of shadow people, non-threatening that dissipate when he walks towards them. Tiring easily. His memory was much better then - he would never forget garbage day, or about an appointment, but he no longer does those things. Tiring easily. No depth perception. Dizzy and feeling a little off-balance.

Does any of that ring a bell with any of you???

When we went in for our April 1999 appointment, he diagnosed Parkinsons and gave Joe several exams including the cognitive evaluation. Joe did excellent and only missed one part of one question - and, of course, his handwriting which I understand is one of the first things that goes with any Parkinsons related disease. He put him on two/25 Sinemet a day and sent us home.

He is the one who prescribed the Mirazapine for sleep that worked so well.

That is when I got on the internet and found the clinical trial and the doctor in Portland that is with The Neurological Clinic associated with Good Samaritan Medical Center there. He specializes in Parkinsons and Migraines!! Speaking of which, he has found four clinical cases where migraine sufferers who were on the same continued medicine regimen that Joe was now have the same symptoms as he now does!! I truly am beginning to believe that all of these things are associated with the environment - where we live, where we have worked and with what elements, and what medicines etc we have taken for years and years. It is a theory anyway and involves more details than I can transmit. We saw this doctor in July 2000, and he also gave Joe the cognitive evaluation and several other tests I had not seen before. Joe did great [but I feel not quite as good as in April 1999]. He increased his Sinemet [slowly] to three/50 each day. In September we went on the clinical trial for a medication that makes the Sinemet last longer. It will end in May.

In September is when - all of a sudden - Joe did not recognize me one evening, and then it has been slowly down hill since then as far as memory. Physically he functions about the same.

Hope we all find answers soon.

Eve [f.dashe@...]