Chapter 396 - Rocky Road Ahead

Leaving home last Tuesday at 1230, we were driven by a person from Wild Dog Care to Dr F's rooms arriving 15 minutes early at 1445 we then waited over an hour to see him. That man should do something about time management. But  "good" came from the delay, for by 1500 her legs were kicking furiously, without ceasing until we returned to the car well after 1700. So a professional saw her dyskinetic legs in action at long last. He asked a lab technician to stay back and give her a nerve conduction study on her right leg and arm, looking for nerve damage. Their guarded comments on completion suggested to me slight damage. Dr F. asked to see her again in 6 months and prefers her attendance at the West Beer clinic in November. He asked for reduction of her dose rate by 0.1 mL/hour/week until then. Well I'm speeding things a little because the following day I reduced it by 0.1 to 5.9 and again on Saturday 12th to 5.8. He mentioned that some patients need to run the pump 24/7 to avoid dyskinesias but not to attempt that yet. We will see; perhaps a little experiment in a few weeks?

Anyway, her leg dyskinesias continue to start mid to late afternoon each day, as do the frequency at which she needs the loo. She can tell me roughly when the legs are about to start because of burning sensations in both legs. At other times her legs and buttocks may be numb. At times she says she "doesn't know where my feet are" so she is always afraid of bumping her toes which readily detect pain. She has given up using slip-on shoes, even ones with a strap, because they are easily kicked off when dyskinesia begins, so now she wears lace-up sneakers.

Dr F suggested asking whether Dr M., neurosurgeon sees private patients rather than finding another who does. To my surprise he does and an appointment is available for this coming Wednesday. Even though we had mentioned to Hot Air City Hospital staff that we had private cover, none of the staff suggested that Dr M also saw patients privately.

I told Dr F of my scare on the day we turned off the DuoDopa pump in an attempt to stop dyskinesias then we both fell asleep and hours later I had difficulty waking her. He said the matter was not serious for that length of time; only after a day or two will serious complications of coma set in. So nice to know.

I have an old man's problem, hydrocoele, which I will leave you to research. Concerned with its progression I got a referral from our GP to a local surgeon, only to discover that he is on leave until November. I then made an appointment to see Dr H. in Hot Air City, the bloke who took pictures and tissue samples of some of my internals several years ago. My worry is whether the scheduling of our two surgeries, should such occur, will clash and how she will be cared for during mine.