Patients Old and Young

The patient wears her straight white hair short like a flapper from the thirties. While she moves randomly in her chair, her face is mobile and her dynamic presence engages all in the room.
"I don't like to think of myself as having Parkinson's Disease"- she tells the medical student. She uses no term to describe her dyskinesias- she simply says, "When I am like this"- gesturing towards her body. The doctor is unsure whether the movements are due to levodopa levels peaking or subsiding. He encourages the woman to keep a medication journal for several days and to bring it when she visits again. With a week's worth of hourly details listing medications and her physical symptoms, he will be better educated to tweak her drugs and reduce the unwanted movements.
In a restaurant no one wants to sit next to her; the movements are embarrassing. She describes her children's response to her initial session with a physician; they thought she was cured. Levodopa quieted everything.
Now balance and freezing become problematic. She takes no antidepressants. She sleeps well, with one Vesicare she wakes only once to use the toilet. The doctor recommends physical therapy, as freezing can be a source of falling incidents. Sun City- a retirement community south of Tampa is her home for the winter half of the year, by April 30th she returns to New York.
"Try and get an appointment in April, I'd like to see you before you leave."
The medical student has long golden hair, hanging loose and straight down her back. Beneath her white lab coat, she is curvy but tall. She reports on another regular patient providing key issues of his visit. The second student, still an undergraduate, is dark, slender and intense. Thick black thick hair comes low on his forehead. When he is not commenting, he takes notes. His assertive voice and commanding attitude give him an authoritative air.
Diagnosed in his late thirties, the patient has had PD for ten years. He notes he feels weak in the legs sometimes, as if lacking the muscle strength to hold his body erect. Dramatizing this he hops from the examination table, performing several steps with bent knees. The doctor nods but has no comment.
The wife notes when very happy or sad, the medications seem to have no affect. Neither the doctor nor students provide any explanation. The physician takes the patient's arm, testing for cogging in the wrist or elbow and comments on the patient's muscle tone, noting he must be active. The client concedes he cuts the lawn, but maintains his bicep with fishing.
The edges of the man's mouth droop slightly at the corners, making him appear sad. Describing his experience with Amantadine, he saw the ceiling slant downward at an angle and the floor slant upward. He felt space would compress him. His hands felt enormous and his body barely fit through the doorway.
Addressing the cost of medications, Mirapex in particular, the doctor suggests switching to Bromocriptine. Used during the seventies, it is an alternative generic option. Expressing doubt about whether it will be as effective as Mirapex, the doctor leaves the room, returning with a white bag of sample bottles.
It is four o'clock. The patient swallows a pill as the doctor explains to his wife, which cold medications may combine safely with the drugs he is taking. Soon after, the patient freezes in the hallway. He turns his wide shoulders sideways performing a maneuver he hopes will unlock his frozen feet.