Hello to all

We have recently moved my mother from the SF Bay area up to Portland, Oregon. We are desperately looking for a LBD knowledgeable General Practitioner and/or an Osteopath. The challenge is to find specific names of Doctors who are knowledgeable or at minimum willing and motivated to become knowledgeable. This is key as many many medical decisions can be mistaken if LBD is not taken into account in many diagnosis and prescriptions!! In parallel, we are getting plugged into the OHSU Neurology area (as of date, appointments are being made for 5 months out), hence a Neurologiist is not a need at this point.
If I too can be helpful to anyone who is in a similar process (or needs North SF Bay area LBD leads), please reach out to me.

BAC

Welcome, we have had several new caregivers post lately. It is not a club anyone wants to join but you will find lots of support and caregivers who have been thru it all. Try to read as much as possible, you'll see similar stories and gain a lot of knowledge.
Take Care,
Gerry

BAC, I know nothing of the Portland medical scene (maybe someone else will) but I have a suggestion. Consider finding your mom a geriatrician. In general I find the attitude much more along the lines of "what can we do to make this person's life as pleasant and as meaningful as we can?" instead of "what can we do to cure this person?". There is no cure for LBD, so someone whose only focus isn't "curing" is a better fit, in my mind.

Good luck! And do share what you find out.

(Is there a local LBD support group in the area. They tend to name names and share phone numbers in their meetings.)

Bac,
Welcome to the LBDA forums, sorry I am a bit delayed I was out of town for a few days, I just sent you in a PM with some names of Doctor's in the area, I also checked for local support groups and sadly there are none. There is an online support group here is the link !
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/LBDcaregivers/join

I'd suggest contacting the excellent Parkinson's Resources of Oregon, parkinsonsresources.org. They have support groups throughout Oregon. I would suggest contacting the PD support group leader for Portland and asking for names of recommended GPs.

PRO is involved in putting on the "Sole Support for Parkinson's" walks around Oregon in September. Such a clever name!

I hope you got your GP. If things get worse, I hope the following helps:

My Dad became "Stark Raving Mad" in 2008; we had to take him to a Geriatric Psychiatry facility in Forest Grove, OR. After a 1-2 weeks, he was stabilized and partly back to normal. He was then moved to a "nursing home" in Canby, OR. We were mostly pleased with that facility. After a few months, we were able to take him home, with the assistance of our county "Home Health" and a private home care business, until he died about 1/2 year later.