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.