What if we were dogs?
 

What if we were dogs with signs of PD? Seriously. I was watching an animal show with our kids (we never watch TV, but it was yucky outside...) and the show was about this harbor where the dolphins were appearing sick. A team of highly specialized expert scientists came in, began drawing urine, feces, saliva, blood, every kind of bodily speciman sample you can think of, the dolphins were bathed, massaged, the fluids/samples meticulously analyzed, to find out why about half of the dolphins in the harbor were manifesting signs of illness (turns out, for those that have to know, the dolphins had very high levels of pollution from the water they lived in). But this is not the point.

The point it: why does this not happen with PD? What if you took a dog that manifested signs of PD to the vet? That vet would be taking samples, drawing fluids and doing scans and xrays, all for a creature that cannot even speak! We can tell our doctors exactly what is going on, but no one listens and the entire protocol from "dx", if you can really call it that, to treatment, stays the same.

I can hear the criticism already, and I agree that the dolphin situation is different: that in the show, the dolphins all hailed from a very geographically limited area, whereas PWP are everywhere. But the point is the difference in the approach to find the CAUSE of the dolphins' illness, right from the start, and this does not happen when we are dx'd....or really, anytime that I know of.

I am thinking of going to our family vet and asking him his thoughts about this, seriously! Not to prescribe anything, obviously, but just for their thoughts, as if a family pet presented with symptoms of PD. Will post results. Go ahead and laugh, it's OK, but we might just learn something. Vets have been using fecal transplants successfully for years, and this is just now just being introduced as a topic in human medicine. Our approach to human health care seems so very different from the approach to animal healthcare, and it does not take a rocket scientist to see which one is typically more successful.

What dogs get
 

Dogs don't get Parkinson's, they get Barkinson's.:D

Hark, hark, the dogs do bark
 

And when we listen to Barkinson's, we are Harkinson's.

What if we were dogs with signs of PD?

They would take us out behind the barn and shoot us.

I know you mean this as a joke... dogs are better than most people and that would be a real loss :)

What is it with social workers? The one affiliated with my neuro's office is horrid. When I was faced with resigning or continue to subject myself to the endless harassment by my employer, that clearly was causing me to worsen, she basically dismissed it. Essentially told me to suck it up. They simply could not get away with it, and that I was not nearly disabled enough for SSDI. Surely, everything would be wonderful again because all my neuro had to do was tweak my meds! Unbelievable.

Do any of them know the words empathy and compassion?

Curious what happened?
 

So did you ever make this happen?
I'd love to hear the feedback...
thank you,
Abraham

I agree...vets are wonderful people that I would definitely consider going to before going to a "doctor". They care about their "patients" in a personal way and I have never yet met a vet I didn't like. You can feel the empathy they have for a hurt or sick animal and will do everything they can to help it. We do not get that as people. Seems we are nothing more than words on a chart, a body without a face or feelings, and cash flow. In 60 years , I have met 2 doctors that I respected as real people and a credit to their profession. It's a shame. Guess that is why I have so many herb books. God knew what He was doing when he created all these wonderful plants to take care of our needs.