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Me too, I wake up so early it makes for such a long day. I had a DATSCAN and it does show the lobes in the brain that have the dopamine. Mine were slightly deficient indicating Early Parkinsonism. The Dr said that I had it and started me meds. Going to a MDS IN July for a second opinion
@A MyParkinsonsTeam Member. The PET SCAN and/or a DAT SCAN will give you more information than anything else. However it will not completely diagnose PD. However there are certain qualities associated with Parkinson's to look for. One being looking for signs and symptoms. One thing that ispoint of interest is that you may have been diagnosed with Parkinson's when it is really not Parkinson's. It may be atypical Parkinsonism. Having no tremors and initially falling backward are two symptoms that are not usually Parkinson's associated. A pet scan or DAT SCAN will also let you know if you may have had a mild stroke that is causing difficulties and mimicking Parkinson's. if you and want to know if your diagnosis for PD is correct… The first thing I would do would be to get both these scans. Ask your doctor if your Medicare insurance will cover it. I think it will but having both of them I'm not sure. Make sure that your Doctor knows for certain that you're serious and how important getting the scans are to you. Go to mayoclinic.org And explore a disease called Supra Nuclear palsy. Get a feel for other possibilities. Let me know how things work out for you or what you think about this. Your feedback would be excellent for me. My best wishes. Sterling
@A MyParkinsonsTeam Member: Were my day not full, I would be right there with you. Right now I am operating on three hours of sleep. It was near 4:30 a.m., before I fell asleep. My wife did as I asked and woke me up before she went to work. She was able to rouse me at 7:30 and she left at 7:40. I have even been to physical therapy. I arrived at 2:10 p.m., and my wife picked me up at 5:30.
Back to my day being full, my supplemental insurance company sends an RN to their policyholders who have chronic illnesses. She does not conduct an examination, she is more like an omsbudsman between the insured and the insurance company. She will be at my house around 11:45 a.m., and generally stays about 45 minutes to an hour.
Let me know of anything new and exciting.
Dadums56 (Bill Yardley)
@A MyParkinsonsTeam Member: You are making this ol' country boy blush. Thank you for your most kind words. I truly believe that the Good Lord put me on this third rock from the Sun to help people in any way that I can.
Did you see my earlier post concerning the Michael J. Fox Foundation holding a webinar on Thursday with the subject being "Sleeping Well With Parkinson's Disease? I posted it on the Main Activity Section earlier today. If you can find it, you may wish to repost the url for registration as more people read your posts than do mine. If you cannot find my post, let me know and I will send it to you.
Dadums56 (Bill Yardley)
@A MyParkinsonsTeam Member: Dr. Brewer is a member of the faculty of the UT College of Medicine, she sits on several boards across the United States, and lectures worldwide. So of the two doctors, I would place my money on Dr. Brewer.
When she arranged the DAT Scan, she said that the test had been used in Europe for years and only had been approved by the FDA for use in the United States. She said that it was 100% effective in diagnosing Parkinson's Disease.
When I talked to the technician after the test on how it worked, he said that when the radiologist read the scan, if they saw illuminated dopamine receptors (I was injected with radioactive iodine three hours before the test and it binds to dopamine) in the brain that looked like an upside down horseshoe, that was good. If they saw the receptors that looked like 1/2 of an upside horseshoe, that was not so good. If they saw just a pinpoint of light or no light at all, that was the worst news.
To see what a dopamine receptor looks like, go to this url*: http://www.hoajonline.com/hormones/2052-8000/1/...
*- If the url does not work, copy and paste in your browser.
Dadums56 (Bill Yardley)
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