Dear Friends, please keep my Papaw in your prayers. He has been declining lately, but we hadn't been able to get a good diagnosis. This is very sad news for the family. Mom's note below explains it:

Well, we have our diagnosis, and it is not good. Dr. Perkins, the neurologist, says he has progressive supranuclear palsy. My Uncle Dow had this. It is similar to Parkinson's but has some definitive markers. Did you know he can't hold his head straight and look down? The blank expression, the slowness in speech and movement, the falling over backwards, the memory loss are all SNP.He will examine the MRI that was done. This illness causes shrinking of the brain stem.
The sad part is there is nothing that can be done to slow or stop it. He said Parkinson drugs don't usually do any good, but he is going to try Aricept or one of the Alzheimer's drugs to slow the progression of memory loss. He did blood work today and will do an EEg on Monday to cement his diagnosis, but he is very certain this is what it is. After hearing what the dr had to say, I could see so much of Uncle Dow's demeanor in Papaw at lunch - the very slow movement like he doesn't know where his mouth is, the closed eyes. He couldn't even really smile a normal smile when the dr asked him to.
As the name implies, it is progressive. He said some people have lived 15 years with it. The web site I looked at said most people die of pneumonia. I just wonder how much time he has with the rapid decline he has had in the last few months.
We talked with him about what he has, but he doesn't seem to care - no questions or anything.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Charles asked me to write since I took notes as the dr talked. I hate to hit you with this at work, Betty, Joan, and Jimmy, but Charles wanted you to hear as soon as possible. Will let you know more as we learn it.
Love, Paula