My husband is 65, diabetic and on oral hypoglycemics. He s always had scoliosis and told me his mother bought him a back brace when he was a child. Within the past few months, however, I noticed that his posture was increasingly bent forward and a right shoulder drop had gotten worse. In addition, he had a shuffling gait but no tremors. He had a lack of appetite, energy, and, was sleeping long periods of time. It finally affected his work and, he was put on another shift because he couldn t keep up with his job. He d been forgetting to pay bills, doctors appointments too. He fell and fractured his left hip 2 years ago. In mid August, he was so confused, didn t know his own name, mine, his address, the President etc. I called an ambulance and, he was on the stroke unit for 4days. Since then, he s still walking with a walker. When he uses the walker, he walks straight but if, he tries not to use it, he wobbles and is unsteady. He has difficulty with speech, loose stools and has lost about 20-30lb. They ruled out a stroke, he had an abnormal MRI and proteins in the CS fluid. They suspected MS but ruled that out and referred me to a hemotologist which we re currently seeing to rule out multiple myeloma but we still have NO diagnosis. I m wondering whether: he DID have a stroke, OR his problems could be orthopedic. If scoliosis and the right shoulder drop have gotten so bad and, in addition to the left hip pins and rods, it might be compressing his neck cutti. By this, perhaps the progressively bent posture could cause a neck compression cutting off the flow of cerebrospinal fluid to the brain and be the source for proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid not to mention putting pressure on the GI tract, The speech therapist also thinks he s not swallowing enough. He s seeing a visiting nurse, occupational/physical/speech therapist. I think 3-4months without a diagnosis is too long to wait and he s being shuffled from one doctor to another. Can you at least tell me if an orthopedic condition like this can affect the flow of CS fluid and cause abnormal proteins? Thanks