Golden Palms Resident Copes With Parkinson's Disease; Offers Support to Other Patients

HARLINGEN, May 25, 2004 – Doctors say that Bill Frink of Harlingen is a model patient, a fighter against Parkinson’s Disease who has not let the disease defeat him. But Mr. Frink is not content to win his own battle against Parkinson’s Disease; he’s helping others to do so as a longtime coordinator of the Parkinson’s Disease Support Group for the Rio Grande Valley.

Mr. Frink is an 82-year-old resident of Golden Palms Retirement and Health Care Center, which is located across the street from Valley Baptist Medical Center.  Mr. Frink was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease when he was 70 years old. Now, 12 years later, doctors say it is remarkable that Mr. Frink hasn’t gotten worse … in his case, the disease hasn’t progressed as much as it does in most Parkinson’s patients.

Mr. Frink and his constant companion, his wife Pauline, credit Mr. Frink’s success to a determination and willingness to comply with his treatment, which includes several medications and some exercises that can be taxing mentally.

“Bill is very good about taking his medicines -- I think he does it for me,” Mrs. Frink said recently from the couple’s apartment at Golden Palms. This year, Mr. and Mrs. Frink are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary – as well as 10 years of leading the Parkinson’s Support Group for the Rio Grande Valley.

“Bill doctor, Dr. Victoria Parada (Neurologist) is just amazed at how well he’s doing,” Mrs. Frink added. “It’s amazing that the disease hasn’t progressed any worse that it has. Normally it’s a progressive disease and there’s no cure.”

Parkinson's disease is a disorder of the brain characterized by shaking (tremor) and difficulty with walking, movement, and coordination. The disease is associated with damage to a part of the brain that is involved with movement.

According to the health encyclopedia at Valley Baptist Health System’s web site, www.valleybaptist.net, Parkinson's disease is caused by progressive deterioration of the nerve cells of the part of the brain that controls muscle movement. Dopamine, a substance used by cells in the body to transmit impulses, is normally produced in this area of the brain. Deterioration of this area of the brain reduces the amount of dopamine available to the body.

The Parkinson’s Support Group for the Rio Grande Valley holds free meetings which are open to all patients, family, and others impacted by Parkinson's Disease.

“The support group has helped a lot of people,” Mrs. Frink said. “The people enjoy it … some of them have been coming for 10 years. Valley Baptist Medical Center provides the refreshments and Golden Palms provides the meeting place. We have exercises for the patients, pamphlets and other educational materials, and we give the patients a chance to share their experiences with Parkinson’s Disease.”

Mr. Frink said the support group “helps us and we help others … it’s a give and take … our objective it to make this educational information available.”

Through the Parkinson’s support group, one of the participants learned of an operation that could help with his tremors, a common Parkinson’s symptom. “Before the operation, the man couldn’t hold a coffee cup in his hand,” Mr. Frink said.

In the case of Mr. Frink, Mrs. Frink said that one of his early symptoms was that “he didn’t like the way his clothes felt on his body. I didn’t know how to cope with that … he eventually outgrew that.”

Mrs. Frink said the hardest aspect for her of dealing with her husband’s Parkinson’s is that “Bill is so slow …. before we go anywhere, I have to get him started 30 minutes ahead of time.”

“With Parkinson’s Disease, your mental processes are slowed down,” Mr. Frink explained. “The thoughts from the brain are restricted to the muscles that need to carry out those messages.”

Mr. Frink has to make a conscious effort to speak loud enough for people to hear what’s he saying. “When I’m talking like this … you’re still having trouble hearing me … but to me, it feels like I’m shouting,” he said.

Before they even knew that Mr. Frink had Parkinson’s, Mrs. Frink noticed that her husband seemed to “mumble” his words. “He told me that I was hard of hearing, so we both had our ears checked. My ears were OK, so then we had his speech tested, and found out that he had a problem with speech.”

Mr. Frink underwent a very intensive speech therapy program, the Lee Silverman Speech Therapy program, in which participants must go to therapy five times a week.

“The therapist stressed loudness,” Bill said. “We were given things to read as loud as possible. They also specified some voice exercises to project your voice … the same kind of exercises singers do. It helped me to improve my speech. But it’s hard to do, so sometimes I revert back.”

In addition to voice exercises and instructions on posture, the therapy also includes mental exercises, Mr. Frink said. “They teach you to focus. It’s hard for me to concentrate on two things at once. If you ask me a question when I’m thinking about something else, I have to decide whether I want to forget what I’m thinking about in order to answer your question.”

Mr. Frink said this is difficult for him, because when he worked as a chemical engineer, he used to do five or six things at once, “and now I can only do one.”

When he first started experiencing the symptoms of Parkinson’s, Mr. Frink would feel anxious when he would go on a trip. “I would get anxious if I walked too far away from my residence … I’d be kind of afraid that I wouldn’t be able to find my way back,” he said.

Mr. Frink’s family physician referred him to a neurologist, who diagnosed the Parkinson’s disease and prescribed medicine. “Then the anxiety went away, although sometimes it comes back,” Mr. Frink said.

Another symptom of Parkinson’s is “freezing.” “Sometimes I reach out my hands to get my keys, and my hands freeze,” Mr. Frink said.

Therapy has helped Mr. Frink to disregard some mental sensations, like if he feels dizzy while walking. “I have to disregard the thing about being dizzy, and concentrate so I can keep walking straight forward down the sidewalk … I have to consciously tell myself, ‘OK, I’m going to put this foot forward, and then the other foot,’ one step at a time. It’s kind of like the difference between automatic control and manual control … I feel like I’m on manual control 95 percent of the time now and I used to be on automatic all the time,” Mr. Frink said.

In addition to taking short steps, other symptoms of Parkinson’s include the arms not swinging when the person is walking, drooling, and bad hand writing – which is one of the reasons that Mr. Frink prefers typing letters on his computer instead of by hand. “I’ve had some of these symptoms for a long time, but I didn’t recognize them,” Mr. Frink said.

In addition to helping other Parkinson’s patients through the support group, Mr. Frink stays active with shooting pool –- he is a champion billiards player at Golden Palms, -- as well as with swimming, attending Mass at a local Catholic church, and visiting their four grown children. A retired chemical engineer, Mr. Frink was born in Vermont. In the 1940’s, Mr. Frink served as a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps, where he flew the B-29 bomber.

“Bill is extremely fortunate, and we thank God for that … many people with Parkinson’s are much worse,” Mrs. Frink said.

The Parkinson's Support Group which the Frinks coordinate meets the third Tuesday of the month (during eight months of the year) at 2:30 p.m. at Golden Palms Retirement and Health Center, 2101 Treasure Hills Blvd. across from Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen. For more information, please call the Frinks at (956) 421-3360.