About five years ago she noticed the tremor in her right hand. Now as she sits in the examination room, her slightly swollen hand vacillates steadily as she rests it on the arm of the chair. She feels the muscles cramping and shortening and uses her other hand to straighten the fingers. Gradually she has lost most of the strength, dexterity and the ability to write legibly. She states she has taken Azilect for two years and sees little improvement.

Ah, but that's good, the doctor states. It means progression of your illness is slow; the other side of the body may be affected with disease, within that time. The comment buoys the patient's sentiments, somewhat. The specialist in movement disorders asks about her prior medical history and learns the patient underwent heart surgery to amend a leaking heart valve, seven months prior. Surgeons removed her thyroid two years ago and she suffers from high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. She states she is healthy, otherwise; comments from an optimist.

As the specialist dives into a description of how and who implicated dopamine as the neurotransmitter depleted in Parkinson's disease, the steady murmur of his voice and the quality of the fluorescent overhead lights lulls the listeners into a stupor. The patient has brought a cup of coffee with her, remarking it's decaffeinated, and the doctor remarks smoking and drinking coffee are two habits that are negatively correlated with illness and PD; the more one smokes and drinks coffee, the smaller the likelihood one will acquire PD.

On physical examination of the patient, the specialist discovers brisk reflexes; probably a byproduct of high blood pressure he comments. He inquires whether she has had an MRI of the brain, as people with long-standing high blood pressure commonly have a multitude of small white spots scattered just under the cortex of the brain. The neurologist feels the fluidity of movement from the left elbow and wrist and senses some rigidity in the muscles of the biceps. When he asks her to walk in the hallway, her gait is regular, with wide steps though she tends to hold the right arm and hand at her side, while she swings the left.

Sitting again in the examination room the patient asks about exercise. The doctor encourages the patient to discover when her cardiologist feels it safe to increase her heart rate, and then describes a clinical experiment in which researchers trained monkeys  to jog on a tread mill six hours a day. Those mokeys that underwent an experimental unilateral injection of a toxin that destroys dopamine neurons to one side of the brain, recuperated much faster, while those that did no exercise remained disabled. He states exercise, especially aerobic activity, enhances repair in the brain and provides a neuroprotective benefit. The patient confides she had to end her membership to the gym, as the temptation to get on the aerobic machines was overwhelming. She states she has always been an active person, and not allowing her heart rate to climb has been difficult. Yoga and Tai Chi are also helpful for those with PD, the physician states.

The doctor creates a chart for the patient, detailing how to increase the dosage of Sinemet. She should aim for the smallest dose that eliminates the stiffness and rigidity in her hand. He also encourages her to seek physical therapy for her hand, to regain strength and extensibility in the muscles. The doctor states he would like to see her again in three months time to see whether the transition to Sinemet has gone smoothly.

Before leaving, the patient reveals she lived in Alaska for sixteen years raising four children. The darkness of the winters never bothered her, or made her feel blue; an unusual blessing for a person with PD, where depression affects 70% of the patient population.

Entering the examination room the male patient sits in a chair with a large board for writing. Perhaps he has had a stroke and can't speak. The patient writes his wife will return soon and the physician begins speaking with him, as he sits down. This clinic, Tuesday morning clinic is a Parkinson's disease clinic, he explains to the patient, who nods in reply. In front of the doctor is a list of symptoms the patient deals with. Tremor is high on the list. The specialist continues speaking, reading the list of medications the patient relies on, and the three pages of medical history patients are asked to fill out.

The wife enters wearing a purple summer dress. The doctor asks when the tremor in the hands first began, and the spouse replies he has had tremor for a long time, and being a mechanic and depending on his hands, he has not worked in some time. The patient writes well, when he chooses to report something, with no indication of tremor in the handwriting. The wife clarifies the story by noting the patient required hospitalization in February after going on a drinking spree of four days. He became psychotic and lost touch with reality. In the care of a community hospital, the patient received an IV drip of saline, and nothing more. The nursing staff did not give the patient thiamine with the IV? The physician asks,and the wife, once a surgical nurse, reported never having seen anything more than saline.

Much earlier in his life, the patient was in a car accident that trapped his hands between his Thunderbird T- back and the asphalt road. Surgery attempted to reconstruct his fingers, but several digits remain stuck in a claw- like position. Another accident; the hammock he slept in collapsed during the night, resulting in fractures to vertebra in his neck and damage to nerves in the left arm, leaving the hand numb, and the left arm useless.

More recently, the wife having taken a position requiring traveling from Monday through Friday, saw little of her spouse and he began drinking heavilyHence the hospitalization for psychosis, in February. Four days after having returned home, the patient again became delirious, hallucinated and lost the ability to walk. The doctor states the scenario sounds reminiscent of Wernicke Korsakoff Syndrome, where drinkers undergo debilitating alcohol withdrawal. The wife took her spouse back to the hospital, where she claims hospital staff related they could do nothing for him. The cause of the syndrome is due to severe deficiency of thiamine, and if not treated the drinker undergoes damage to the brainstem; memory, gait and voluntary gaze are all affected.

On physical examination, the patient is weaker on the left, probably resulting from the old injury to the neck and damage to the nerves that innervate the arm. Muscle tone is supple, and the specialist feels no rigidity, and sees no slowness in movements. Resting tremor is slight.

The doctor views the MRI conducted in the community hospital and notes the poor test quality. Though judged normal, the physician notes some shrinkage of the midline cerebellum on the MRI, typical of those who drink heavily. He comments it's worth having the test repeated at the institution, as their current technology may be capable of catching something unremarkable on the poor quality image of the brain. He admits he does not know the cause of the patient's inability to speak. He asserts the problem may be a psychiatric one, though all psychiatric illness has a physical disturbance that can be explained, biochemically. The wife interjects the psychiatrist told her yesterday it is not a psychiatric problem. The doctor counsels the patient to care for himself, by eating a healthy diet, taking a multivitamin and exercising daily, and the brain will repair itself, and not to seek too many doctors as they're likely to mess things up.

There is no Parkinson's here, the doctor concludes. Sent by another neurologist who noted the tremor of his hands, the patient came to rule out a movement disorder. The effects of medications cause many movement disorders, the doctor concedes, and at least one of the drugs the patient uses, lists tremor as a side effect. The psychiatric medications the patient depends on have stabilized his bipolar disorder, and the neurologist feels reluctant to change any of them, though he feels the patient would benefit from physical and speech therapy, and a new MRI.