July 10, 2004
Neurology Here I Come
So to continue my basic biography, which will probably end up being an ongoing thing in between regular updates, I was referred to a neurologist by my regular physician.
The neurologist (Dr. K) seemed very knowledgable, he told me that Parkinson's is really only truly diagnosed via a biopsy and that it is disgnosed in the living basicallly by process of elimination and how/if I responded to medication.
So if I am given PD meds and my body responds positively, it's most likely PD?
Hmmmm.... ok.... this was a new way of approaching things.
So I was prescribed Requip which, I was assured, was the "latest drug" and had the least chance of causing long term nerve damage... dyskinesia... where your nerves go through involuntary twitches.
Wait a minute...I thought PD already had that twitching base covered?
Hey if nothing else, one good thing about having PD is that it increases your vocabulary with some cool sounding multi-syllabic words.
Besides being prescribed Requip I was sent for an MRI on my brain in order to rule out other neurological problems that might be causing the tremor.
But... before we cover the joys of an MRI let me tell you of the sheer fun of Requip.
Let's see... nausea every morning, dry heaves...absolute bliss and rapture, you can be assured.
It felt, to be frank, like the way I have heard chemotherapy patients describe their reactions to treatment.
My wife calls Dr.K and he responds "Oh, his dosage must be too much, take it down a bit". Well, I do that and lose the vomiting part but nausea every morning sticks with me.
Just a side effect, I am assured.
Now my mind starts to put things together here, sort of adding things up.
I went to Dr.K because I had a slight tremor in my left hand.
I was given medication.
Now the tremor has lessened somewhat but I feel nauseated most of the day.
Is this worth it?
Is the tradeoff worth it?
Well, in seeing that the tremor was lessening I remembered Dr. K saying that if my symptoms responded to the meds it was probably PD.
It was responding.
Lessening.
Uh oh.
That and also my MRI came back showing nothing that might be causing a tremor.
Now the MRI was interesting... you are put on a table, your head in a brace cage of the sort not unresembling something Hannibal Lecter might have sported on days he was being moved.
But the head must stay steady for these things.
I understood that.
You hold steady while a technician is behind a glass partition adjusting the mechanism.
You have time to think while having an MRI.
Staring at the ceiling through the bars of your brace you wonder what in the world brought you to this point in life.
I found myself going over my life, oddly enough.
Picturing myself as a child with such tremendous potential and life.
Such hope and possibilities for the future.
Playing, moving freely, happy.
The scene returns to present day and I realize that here, strapped on this mysterious contraption which makes strange noises, I have never felt so vulnerable... so lost.
Like in those stories we all heard as children where Hansel and Gretel go off into the forest, leaving breadcrumbs behind to find their way home only to realize too late that the birds had eaten all hope of return.
How did I get here? This dark forest of medical mysteries.
Machines and brain scans, nerve endings and muscles that no longer respond properly. A new language that I don't speak but pertains to me intimately.
A not a bread crumb in sight.
Not a signpost home.
An MRI is like an X-ray, but very sophisticated. Unlike the typical X-ray we think of for bones, an MRI can sense softer tissue like brain, sinuses, spinal cord, eyeballs, all those fun innards.
It takes cross section pictures. Not unlike someone taking slices about a half-inch or so thick. (I apologize for the grotesque imagery)
I was given the MRI films, after Dr. K Gave them a cursory glance he said they looked fine and so we would proceed, based on that and the response to the meds, to treat this as Parkinson's Disease.
Thus was I diagnosed.
Enough for this entry I think.
Thank you for reading this.
Thanks for listening.
Posted by Lalo on July 10, 2004 05:32 AM