PatientsLikeMe ™

My spouse of 32 years is a Park Ranger/Deputy Sheriff.  Because of this we recently moved from our double wide trailer on 10 acres to a "park" residense which is handicap accessible.  It is a lovely place on Lake Travis.  I recently acquired a motorized wheel chair, which cost insurance $45k (my husband and I were stunned when we saw the price tag). 

I have two sons, age 27 and 26, and a daughter, age 24.  My eldest lives in OKC with his girlfriend and works in the oilfield.  He has a daughter(Natilee) who lives with her mother in OKC.  Natilee is the sweetest thing and I wish I could see her more often.  My son is having difficulty seeing Natilee and is taking his exwife to court for failing to let him see Natilee over Christmas.  My younger son works with ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) in the gulf of mexico.  He is usually out at sea 3 weeks (or more) at a time. His wife is a jewel, though a klutz, and his two boys, William age 4 and Bryce age 2, are BOYS.  They currently are "visiting" with her parents in Rhode Island but there address is our place in TX.  William has had alot of trouble with his ears which has slowed his speech development.  Bryce was speaking better but recently William has improved.  My daughter is a massage therapist.

I will write more later, am tired now.

I was diagnosed at age 41. The neurologist in VT (where we lived) prescribed me with low dose sinemet (don't remember dose) to be used as I felt I needed.

I got a new job in Austin, TX (cause I did not want to die in such a cold climate;} ) in a fairly stressful job that I loved (SW Systems Support Engineer, lots of travel). My neurologist there was great but also kept me on sinemet/levodopa(don't remember dose) as she was not familiar with the challenges of "young onset" PWP. When I started having problems with diskenetias (sp?) (I almost stabbed my husband, accidentally of course) she referred me to Dr. Jankovic in Houston.

At The Parkinson's Disease Center and Movement Disorders Clinic I saw Dr. Ondo who took me off of sinemet explaining that the body doesn't tolerate long-term use, therefore my diskenetias, which was a new development in the treatment of young onset PWP. He put me on Requip but because I had taken sinemet for so long the diskenesia, altho reduced, remained. After 2 years he recommended me for DBS, which did aleviate the diskenesia but brought on other probs.