I met an anesthesiologist at my friend’s house. When my friend informed her that I was connected to Parkinson’s Mitra Mandal, she said, “I would like to work with you. The nature of my work is such that I am busy the whole day. But, still if there is anything that I can help with I would like to do it in my spare time.” While talking she informed us that her mom was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. She said, “My mother was suffering from depression, we consulted a Psychologist. She was given a few medicines also to battle it. One day, when a doctor friend of mine was visiting me, he brought her gait and facial expressions to my attention. He told me that my mom was suffering from Parkinson’s and I should consult a neurologist. I also realized that yes those were all symptoms of Parkinson’s. I was shocked that I had not noticed this.” It can happen even with a doctor at home. People who have never heard the word Parkinson’s may not realize that one needs to consult a neurologist for depression. I had heard that I had heard that for some patients Parkinson’s begins with depression, this was an example of that. I asked her for her mom’s name. On hearing the name, I remembered that her name was mentioned in our list. Ramchander Karmarkar had visited her home. She was too old and weak to come for the Mitra Mandal meetings. But she had mentioned that she would like if someone phoned her or visited her. I myself had spoken to her a couple of times. She was sad that she come to know about the Mandal so late. It happens many times. My chats are a means of conveying information about our self-help groups to such PD beneficiaries. Many those who come to the Mandal regularly overcome depression. Since I have written separately on Parkinson’s and depression. I will not repost it here but I am sharing the link to the article.
i want to say while going , I think it is important to have a system that can view the website on a mobile phone and an app like Shubhankar for bedridden patients who cannot come to the meetings. Bedridden patients is a separate chat topic. Will chat about it some other time….
Read this blog for further details:
https://parkinson-diary.blogspot.in/ www.parkinsonsmitra.org check the You Tube channel Parkinson’s Mitramandal,Pune too.