Well, I had a pretty thorough exam and interview this morning with Dr. Robottom. He thinks it
is classic Parkinson's Disease, but the fact that I haven't responded normally
to any of the 3 most commonly prescribed treatments troubles him. He had 3
things. One is to test for Wilson's Disease. He says it can present like PD but
is treated differently because it is caused by a buildup of copper in the brain.
He says if it is WD, it should have shown up on the MRI, but that they can also
rule it out with blood and urine tests. So, they drew a vial of blood and I
start a 24 hour collection of urine in the morning. Two is to learn some
physical therapy exercises to work on muscle tone and battling rigidity. I go
tomorrow afternoon and he says I might be asked to return once or twice, but it
will be up to me. Three is a prescription for 2mg of Artane or trihexyphenidyl
with a 21 day chart for going from a 1/2 pill daily to 3 pills daily. He says if
I feel the positive effects at any point in the process I can stop increasing
before I get to 3. He also says this is the drug he has the most patients refuse
to stay on because of bad side effects like dry mouth, constipation and what he
calls fog, mental slowing, trouble thinking or finding words. We'll see. He sent
it to Kmart and I probably won't get anything from them before next week if they
hold true to form.
We did cover the big picture of the fact that I will not actually ever get
better, that whatever it actually is doesn't matter to the fact that it is a
progressive disease and the overall goal is just to slow down the progression
and help manage the symptoms to maintain my normal lifestyle for as long as
possible. We did not discuss what happens when we've gone beyond that. I go back
to Dr. Carnes in about a month for follow-up.
