She was taking so many pills, it just seemed as if the problem was acid reflux.  Looking back, it now seems so obvious.  Her chest would start hurting when we walked very far.  It often seemed to hurt when she had strong dyskinetic movements, the ones that come with years of taking the main Parkinson’s med, Sinamet.  The movements are the ones that Michael J. Fox often has.  I can even remember once hearing her say as we were walking back from the mailbox, I think I am having a heart attack.  The pain always seemed to subside after a bit.  There were so many aches and pains that were attributable to some aspect of the Parkinson’s that I just didn’t put two and two together. I take some comfort in realizing that neither did our General Practitioner or our Neurologist or our Endocrinologist or our gastroenterologist put two and two together.  As many medical tests as Mary Ann had had in more than a decade of the Parkinson’s no one spotted it.

When finally one night she had a heaviness in her chest and she went to the Emergency Room, the process began that revealed she had blocked arteries. She truly had had some silent heart attacks.

It seems so obvious now as I look back.  I think what happened is that the one already diagnosed major degenerative disease, Parkinson’s, took up so much space in my perception of our reality, that there wasn’t room for another health issue.

I remember when ministering to parishioners before I retired how difficult it was for people to handle multiple problems at once.  Some seemed to feel that if there was one health issue or other major problem in theier lives they had reached their quota for problems.  If a second and third major problem joined the first, it was an affront to fairness. How could it be?  The one problem was enough.  How could another problem and then one more be added?

Our journey has taught me in no uncertain terms that having one major problem does lessen the likelihood of having another.  Mary Ann has the Parkinson’s, high blood pressure problems, low blood pressure problems, low thyroid — she has had congestive heart failure, a major life-threatening pneumonia, four spots of skin Cancer removed. Some health problems actually make a person more susceptible to certain other problems.  When that is the case, the doctors and the Caregiver watch out for symptoms of those problems.

It is when a health issue emerges that is not related to the main diagnosis that it can slip in unnoticed.  Just because Mary Ann has Parkinson’s does not mean she cannot have some other health problem.

The same single focus can cloud the perception of Caregiver’s and doctors when the patient is elderly.  New symptoms are dismissed as a consequence of getting older.

What brought this topic to mind was the trip to the Dermatologist to have the stitches removed from the surgery on Mary Ann’s latest Basal Cell Skin Cancer.  I asked the doctor to look at a couple of other tiny spots just to be sure.  They are no problem.  We did, however, make a routine appointment for six months down the line.  I will continue to watch for spots on her skin that look suspicious.

The Parkinson’s needs not to cloud our perception or lessen our vigilance for other problems.  Mary Ann has her annual Mammogram.  She has a periodic Colonoscopy.  Blood tests check her thyroid activity, urine tests check her kidney function, her blood sugar level is checked along with her cholesterol. She has gotten the Pneumonia shot and will get the booster in another couple of years.  She routinely gets the flu shot.  She has gotten the shot to help prevent Shingles.  Her eyes are checked for Glaucoma, Macular Degeneration, and cataracts.  She has had a bone scan for Osteoporosis.

There are no rules concerning how many or how few health issues one person may have.  Things just happen.  Problems come when they come.  It is not a matter of fairness or lack of fairness.

Whether a chronic illness has joined your household or not, there needs to be the same amount of vigilance.  We all need to do whatever is reasonable and affordable to check for and help prevent the onset of the common diseases that come to many as the years go by.

I now look at and listen to Mary Ann more attentlvely and no longer assume that whatever the pain, it must just be the Parkinson’s.  There is no quota for the number of problems one person can experience.  Caregivers who understand that will give better care.

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