Well, as long as we are discussing hospitals I suppose I will continue the theme. As many of you know, I elected to have a brain biopsy performed on my Dad after he passed away. The purpose of this procedure was to hopefully determine what caused his very untimely death. Dr.
Trepetta at the Barrow Neurological Institute has been working on it for some time, keeping in regular contact with me. Until now, I've had nothing worth reporting. They were very interested in his case and we were working to get him under their care prior to his passing. Their interest only heightened after performing their numerous tests, as they were unable to come to any conclusive diagnosis.
We know the following: My Dad's problems were not the result of any traumatic brain injury or really any brain related disorder. The tests for Alzheimer's, Lewy Body Disease, and a variety of other disorders were all negative. The Dr. acknowledges that his brain was significantly atrophied, but says this was likely due to poor circulation rather than some disorder. So, that mystery is solved.
The Dr.'s believe the following (but can't prove it): They believe his problems were due to a shortage of neurotransmitters. Basically, these are chemicals that send signals from nerves to muscles. Without them, the message never makes it. The theory is that we are all born with a limited amount of these neurotransmitters, and when we run out, motor skills suffer. The Dr's believe that my Dad simply was born with far less than most people. Essentially, the diagnosis is premature aging due to a shortage of neurotransmitters. Once these signals begin to stop getting passed along all areas of the body suffer and we begin to age. That probably happened for my Dad around age 40, when it would happen around age 70 for most people. By age 62 he was just running out of them and the small problems - like balance - became magnified and began impacting nearly all of his motor functions. Interestingly, this was a diagnosis that Uncle Doug and I got in the hospital, but we didn't believe the Dr. who's bedside manner really needed a lot of work.
Even if Barrow had been able to see my Dad prior to his passing, even as early as 10 years ago, there was nothing they could do. There are certain medications that work on certain areas that fail to respond due to a lack of neurotransmitters (the Dr. used Viagra as an example), but there are so many different neurotransmitters and my Dad's symptoms were so broad that there was virtually nothing that could have been done.
I have nothing but good things to say about Barrow and Dr. Trepetta. He spent about 45 minutes talking with me today, and I had to cut him off to go to an appointment. We went through the history again and the symptoms and he explained all of this to me. This is, believe it or not, very welcome news. I've been stewing about this for a while wondering about the outcome. Losing a parent has the unfortunate impact of forcing a person to consider their own life...and eventual death. Losing my Dad the way I did and watching him really suffer for a long time, didn't make that any easier. According to the Dr., this is an extremely rare occurrence, and it is highly unlikely that it was in any way genetic. Patients with these types of symptoms are usually older, and have some problematic history such as polio or excessive drug abuse. Just a freak thing...sometimes those are the hardest to take.
Anyway, I thought I would let everyone know the outcome. I appreciate all of your support last fall. It has been very good to get back to work and to focus on the future. So, with that behind me I thought I'd let you all know that I've picked up a new sport - Triathlons. Here's a shot of me about to push off from the pool on Sunday.
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I decided to do this on Easter after some encouragement from a friend who is really into it. So, I trained for a week. I love to swim, am learning to run and I'm a human slug on the bike. I figure I can probably clip about 20% off my bike time just by training more. That's how slow I was.
The first one was just a Sprint (300m pool swim, 12 mi bike, 3 mi run). I'm doing another Sprint on May 4th at Bartlett Lake (400 m lake swim, 10 mi bike, 2.2 mi run) that promises to be much more difficult despite the distances. It is supposed to be VERY hilly. So, I'm actually going to train for that one. I'm shooting for my first Olympic in San Diego on June 29th. We'll see about that. I have a long way to go.
When is the Spudman again?
Love David J.
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