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Robert S. Stall, M.D. - symptomatic
Birthdate: 5/11/57 |
| Medications: Penicillamine, Zinc Acetate (Galzin), Tetrathiomolybdate | |
| How My Wilson's Disease was Discovered | |
| My primary doctor noticed I had a tremor in my jaw as well as my hands
and that I couldn't walk a straight line. He recommended I see a
neurologist. The neurologist I went to had seen Wilson's patients
during his training. He diagnosed me on the spot. However, this was
over a year after I started developing a tremor, and several years after
I had severe depression. I was treated with TM (tetrathiomolybdate) after a short course of penicillamine during which my neurologic symptoms worsened. This was the trigger (neurologic worsening) by which Dr. Brewer recommended I come to Ann Arbor for TM treatment rather than continue on the penicillamine. His initial studies found half of patients treated with penicillamine suffer worsened neurologic symptoms and half of those suffered irreversible neurologic symptoms. |
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| My Symptoms Before Treatment | |
| Before TM treatment, I could not lift a cup of coffee to my mouth (or any drink, for that matter) without spilling it (I had to use straws while bending my head over to the glass rather than lifting the glass). My wife had to cut my steak when we went out for dinner. My gait was unsteady. I spoke slowly with irregular rhythm (I thought I had developed a stutter from anxiety). I had tremors in my hands, arms and jaw. I was able to drive but my leg was difficult to control when pressing down on the clutch. My writing was very slow, micrographic and tremulous, similar to a Parkinson's patient (in fact, I measured the tremor frequency through my writing and it came out to 6 Hz, approximately the same as the usual Parkinsonian tremor). I had partial KF rings which were difficult to see because of my brown eyes. | |
| My Symptoms Now | |
| My treatment began in 1989. Most recovery occurred during the 1 year
after start of treatment. I still feel like I am improving though this
may be through practice and retraining in specific tasks such as sports. Now, no one can tell anything is wrong with me (including neurologists and gastroenterologists). I am living a full life in my medical practice (though I never missed a day of work throughout my acute illness except for when I went to Ann Arbor for eight weeks for inpatient treatment). I can play baseball, basketball and golf as I did in my youth. I speak frequently to community and professional groups about geriatric medicine. Most nurses wonder how I could be a doctor with such good handwriting. After eight weeks of TM, I was transitioned to maintenance zinc acetate 50 mg tid which is the only medication for Wilson's that I am on now. |
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| Contact Info | |
| Robert S. Stall, M.D.(drstall@acsu.buffalo.edu) 14 Heritage Road West Williamsville NY. 14221 tel: 716 636-7531 fax: 716 636-7532 Homepage: http://wings.buffalo.edu/~drstall/ |
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