Does she have Parkinson's Disease or not?

Well, I returned from Stockton on June 30th -- having helped my aunt transition to a retirement community, with all the attendant issues of moving and downsizing. It was an education on so many levels!!!

Still waiting on an answer to the potassium issue. On June 18th, we went to see the cardiologist, who upped her Amiodarone dose -- but also stopped the potassium, pending upcoming blood tests. He agreed that my aunt's 4.7 potassium reading was too high considering that she was taking both potassium AND Lisinopril. We'll soon see...

On another note, my aunt was summoned to her neurologist's office yesterday as a result of drug chaos. In early June, he had said that her Parkinson's Disease was undertreated, and she did not have an "essential tremor." So try increasing the Mirapex; she could take a lot more daily if needed (see 6-2-09). We started to do that up to .375 mg three times daily, and she seemed to shake less. THEN when we went to get a new supply, HUMANA denied it! So she was switched a similar dosage of Ropinirole (Requip). Earlier this week, the pharmacy had given her 9 a day X 30 = 270 25 mg Ropinirole pills as it was time to get a new supply. This apparently triggered a drug inquiry from Humana, duh!

(BTW - the nurse asked my aunt to put all the pills she was currently taking in a bag and bring them to the office, even though we had given the doctor a complete list last time! She took her pills and her list.)

But the salient point was that the Requip was not helping diminish the tremors. So yesterday, the same doctor said that since the drugs didn't seem to help, he did not think she actually had Parkinson's Disease. My aunt -- who had recently attributed her coughing to the PD -- seemed quite pleased.

But just who the heck is on first?