Another Step Down the Road . . .

We switched eye doctors and both of us now have Ophthalmologist taking care of us and our eyes.  My case was simple and I found out my Optometrist was indeed way out in left field doing unrequired tests on me and saying I was a candidate for Glaucoma.  My current doctor says no, I have normal pressures in my eyes and I do not have Optical Hypertension.  End of that story.

But Judie, my wife, who has among other things, well many other things, dry eyes.  She suffers from Sjorgen's Disease which dries up your body.  She may have Myasthenia Gravis, yet another autoimmune disease which the Neurologist says she has maybe a 15% chance of having it.  Not much treatment for Sjorgens, no drugs unless you are pretty severe.  She does take a drug for Myasthenia
Gravis and that has helped her with improved upper body strength.

Her new Ophthalmologist took one look at her and said, "Your eyes are not converging like they should be.  You are in fact compensating by closing your non-dominant eye to read up close."  He immediately referred her to the Neurologist because that symptom is common to Parkinson's Disease.

We saw the Neurologist who had treated her before for migraine headaches and she said that was true about the eye convergence, it was indeed a primary symptom of Parkinson's Disease.  But she needed to view a current MRI of the brain to make any definitive diagnosis.  She explained that one can experience Parkinson-isms, or symptoms of Parkinson's Disease and not have the disease.  So she was scheduled for a brain MRI.

That in itself was a sort of trial, the MRI Clinic went berserk over the fact that she had an implanted pain stimulator in her lower back.  She purposely got the kind of stimulator that was impervious to Magnetic Radiation or put another way, not a problem for having an MRI performed.  That was finally settled but not without signing papers etc. to absolved the MRI clinic of any post problems from the MRI.

She had the MRI, saw her eye doctor and got prism glasses prescribed for her to use while reading.  Long distance vision is okay and does not need the prism correction.  We discussed the MRI and the report we had seemed very benign, no issue was pointed out by the clinic doctor who reads the MRIs.  We felt good about the MRI examination.

Then we visited the Neurologist for a post MRI examination discussion.  Well the MRI Clinic docs are ignorant and really do not know much about Parkinson's Disease.  The Neurologist did in fact know what to look for and where to look for it in the brain.  What she found was not encouraging, in fact down right scary.  She said what she saw was probably (note the hesitation to come out with a strong diagnosis) the early stages of Parkinson's Disease.  Additionally, her nodding off at night and in the car was a symptom of Parkinson's.  Her uncontrolled drooling out of the corner of her mouth was yet another symptom of Parkinson's.  And finally the eye convergence issue was yet a third symptom of Parkinson's Disease.

The Neurologist immediately put her on Dopamine with specific instructions to take only two pills a day for the next week and then return of another look see by the doctor.  We are supposing that the doctor can detect some sort of improvement from the Dopamine and that will help confirm the Parkinson's Disease diagnosis.  Otherwise, I surmise she would have only Parkinson-isms.  So she is taking the pills and we will see the Neurologist again next week.  We do not see any immediate improvement but then we do not know what she, the neurologist, is looking for.  We hope for the best but grid ourselves for the worst.

We live now from day to day.  We are kept alive by maintenance drugs for blood pressure as an example and suffer from autoimmune disease like Diabetes and Sjorgren's Disease.  We do not need yet another autoimmune disease to deal with like Parkinson's.  We are in the keep on keeping on mode.  The twilight of our life is upon us.

The Truth About the AR-15 . . .

The commercial version of an AR-15 (and its variants) is a semi automatic firearm.  Like a semi automatic pistol it can only fire one cartridge per trigger pull.  Pretty common amongst modern weapons.  The key word here is "commercial" which means it is available to the general public.  It is not the same as the AR-15 and its variants as used by the US military establishment that in and of itself can fire more than one round per trigger pull.  That gun, is an assault rifle, and can fire single, multiple of three rounds or empty the clip if so selected on one trigger pull.

Many people confuse the general use of "automatic weapon" with the more specific term semi automatic.

As a matter of record automatic firearms have been banned from the general public since the National Firearms Act of 1934.  That includes military assault weapons.  Your local police department or the county sheriff has a literal arsenal of those kinds of firearms.  The general public does not have them, can not buy them and it is illegal to modify the commercial version of the firearm.

So in reality, the commercial version of the AR-15 is no different than any other multiple round magazine rifle made and sold in the US of A.  It looks tough, very military but it is not repeat not an assault weapon.  It uses a common .223 high rifle powered round.  The commonly available AK-47 is similar to the AR-15 except it uses a common 30 caliber rifle round.  It to in the commercial version is available to the general public and is a semi automatic weapon.  In its military version it is a true assault weapon with a fully automatic capability.  We have many automatic shot guns used in hunting all over the place.  The shot gun is really a semi automatic firearm, that is one shot per trigger pull.

Senator Diane Feinstein had an federal act passed that tried to define AR-15 and like weapons in the commercial version as assault weapons.  That law expired and in spite of the many attempts by the gun toting Senator (Senator Feinstein has a conceal carry license and is said to carry such a firearm at all times when in the public) to renew the act, the Congress of the US has refused to do so.  The act was failure.  The act was an attempt to change the definition of the rifle.  It did not work.  Many states, including Senator Feinstein's home state of California have banned the weapon.  But in general it is not an illegal firearm in the US thus is readily available in next door Arizona or Nevada.  Nothing prevents you from buying the weapon in Nevada and bringing it back (albeit illegal in California) home in California.  No one that I know that had such guns in California rushed to turn their weapons to the authorities in California.

A word about the National Rifle Association (NRA).  It came into existence after the Civil War and its objective was the protect the guns rights of the former salves.  Many people, especially in the southern US, were afraid if the blacks got weapons they would rise up and slay people.  That most assuredly did not happen.  And because of the NRA, the US Constitution 2nd amendment remains intact.  We, the citizens of the United States, have the right own and bear arms.  It is said that the Japanese in WW-II ruled out any attacks against the continental US would fail because the general population had so many guns.

Remember it is not the firearm that kills, it is the human that pulls the trigger that kills people.