5 July 2015 Hike with Mike finale

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The months from March to July have been heavily weighted toward the hope of acquiring a new neurologist to help me manage Parkinson's. The contract neurologist at moutain home quit providing consultant services and the VA's back up (hiring outside physicians and paying for vets to be see) kicked in. Highly unsatisfactory. I arrived at the appropriate office, already a month behind schedule and needing new scripts for my meds. What I got for VA's money was a referral to a university clinic 5 hours distant that would not see me until next January. I tried to tell him that I could not schedule the appointment – VA has to approve that expense. He told me to come see him after I was seen in the Vanderbilt clinic.

I wasted no time in contacting my primary care doc. I am not about to let some LMD throw me into a university clinic that would take a year to repeat a diagnosis and then lose my records in their system. I hope I've opened a shit storm over this. If not, I fully intend to. VA has its own movement disorder consortium and I can telemed that clinic. We'll see what happens.

Tremendous fatigue has set in, paire with sleep ditsturbance. Makes it hard to anything some days and difficult on many others

My daily hikes with my down stream neighbor, Mike, have ended. We set out as usual about 0900 last wednesday, 8 july. 0.3 miles down the road he simply fell over backwards, no pulse, no respirations, no motion, no words. I was about 3 steps in front of him when I eard the noise his head made when it hit the pavement. Complicating the scene, it was at a sharp curve in the road and the side we were on was overgrown with weeds so that remaining where he fell would have put us both under the wheels of the first vehicle coming our way.

I managed to flag a car, get the driver to drive to a point with cell service and call 911. The she flagged traffic. I did the first response things, airway, pre-cordial thump. Nothing worked. He was dead when he fell over. EMS arrive in about 10-14 minutes and lined and shocked him before tranporting him 28 miles to Johnson City. He was pronounced there. I had one contact number for his business partner. Called that number and intiated the cascade. Memorial service Saturday

Rather a bummer of a week.

24 March 2015 Rich sound

The latest iteration of hearing aids is now in. The part of the case inside the ear canal is gold plated. This is in hope that I will be able to wear them without the plastic case will not irritate my ears.

Of course, the technicians who clean and tepair audiology aids immediately dubbed me “gold ear.” Can't blame them for the nickname. I'd have hung something similar on someone else if they met the criteria. Have to admit that this is a great opening for creating a new “James Bond” film title &/or villain for said movie.

Have at it friends.

21 March 2015 67 and still kicking

I've received quite a few messages wishing me a happy birthday. In an effort to thank everyone, I'm taking this route and posting this note.

To family members, thanks for all the support. It's nice to have you in my world.

Further, to all my FB friends, fishing friends, and those who flesh out surprisngly diverse intersecting groups of people who I share opinions or disagreements with, thank you each. There is room to fish with friends on our stretch of Cassi Creek.

To my Compendium friends, I cherish the longevity of this group and look forward to keeping on truckin' down the road with you. This has been one of the longest associations of people in my existance. Truly an amazing group of friends and compatriots. I may be markedly slowed by Parkinson's, but the music makes a major difference in my desire to keep listening.

I find that I need more time to read various posts, articles, etc. now. The time it takes to respond is also lengthened. I'm not ignoring or avoiding the world beyond my computer, just requiring longer to compose and proof every thing I write.

Discovered this past week that the claim for VA benefits I filed via the local TN veteran's service agency was improperly filed and somehow vanished into thin air. So Monday will begin a new claim process based upon the increasing severity of my particular brand of Parkinson's. It seems that the consultant who contracted with VA for neurology services did not document the progression of my symptoms, leaving that to a progression of residents, none of whom ever saw me more than once as they rotated through the neurology service. The contract consultant has left VA and I must now begin again with another physcian who practices in Kingsport. This is going to involve arguing with VA about mileage compensation.

That's all the outgoing traffic for today. Thanks, stay well, keep dancing!