After selling my pharmacy in 2010, I became very depressed. Within 2 months I was seeing a counselor. I wrote in my journal for my counselor that I would not have made it through the last 6 years of having the pharmacy if it had not been for my daughter working there. Four months later I was referred to a psychiatrist for evaluation of my medication treatment for depression. I was given a drug called Bupropion. Eleven days after taking the medication, I could barely move my feet. My local physician began the process of discontinuing the medication. The next morning he ordered a 24 hours heart monitor. The following day I was admitted to the hospital and after 30 minutes was transferred to a major heart center. At this time I was diagnosed with neuro-cardiogenic syncope. Ultimately I was given 7 pills a day to increase my blood pressure and 2 a day to lower it by the cardiologist. After 5 months of this treatment, I was referred to a neurologist. On my first visit, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. I returned in one month and the diagnosis was changed to frontal temporal dementia with a referral to a major teaching hospital memory and cognitive clinic. I was told that I would receive my diagnosis after the 2nd visit. Instead, I was given a diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies at the conclusion of extended physical and neuro-psychological testing. Why did it take 8 doctors and 18 months to receive my diagnosis? Every physician I saw did what they were trained to do in their specialty. The unfortunate thing is there appears to not have been any collaboration and collating of information in order to complete the puzzle until I got to the 8th physician. This is unacceptable in our healthcare today. Electronic records need to be more functional. My hope is that through this site more awareness of LBD may be created leading to earlier diagnosis so that persons with LBD may have some good quality of life for a number of years. Families must keep good notes of everything that is taking place and lay the picture out to the medical community so that an accurate diagnosis can be made, ©2015 Robert Bowles
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 19:08:27 +0000
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