Undaunted

The patient begins explaining as soon as the doctor sits and the list is long. He thinks he's always had a tremor of the hands but now he thinks it may be worse; sometimes he has troubling controlling the mouse on the computer so the cursor sprints across the screen. He has a low body temperature, usually about 96 degrees. Another autonomic sign is erectile dysfunction..
On examination the doctor finds some rigidity in the muscles of the right arm, a hint of rigidity in the left arm but none in the wrists. His gait is fluid, with an arm swing. Facial expressions are complete. His eye movements are full, but then he has only one eye; he lost the left one when he was seven, when he accidentally stuck a knife in it. He was also hit by a car and spent a year in the hospital trying to acquire appropriate healing of the left tibia- leg bone. As a child he watched his brother die when he had a seizure and never recovered. His father died before age thirty-five and two of the patient's daughters also died. Yet he is not depressed, he's an optimist. We laugh. So much death and he is undaunted.
He is a working engineer, and he's past retirement age, at 72. Traveling he uses his Irish passport; in Libya they have negative associations about Americans and he travels a lot; India, Northern Africa... He speaks French, some Arabic, Spanish, some Italian and he used to speak Gaelic.
He worries about his enlarging waistline, and the doctor asks him whether he has had his thyroid tested. He admits the skin of his arms gets very dry, unless he uses lotion his skin flakes like the scales of a fish.
The doctor explains a study he is in which seeks a biomarker for the progression of Parkinson's disease. The patient is a wonderful candidate because he is early in the disease process, if he has Parkinson's. The only way to be sure about the diagnosis and whether he has a deficit of dopamine, is to gauge the response to levodopa.. Yet the doctor hesitates to give him medications when he functions so well, choosing instead to give him a drug thought to delay onset of symptoms, Selegiline. A prescription for physical therapy will help him form an exercise routine to keep him active.