You don't say how old is your husband is and of course age could be a factor. However it is the case that for many people Parkinson's does produce significant fatigue, as can much of the medication that is used to treat it. Additionally, the hospital may be giving him other medication and the cocktail may mean that, each element does its useful job, but the mixture altogether could be exacerbating the fatigue of the Parkinson's.
I think that you should insist on speaking to a doctor who has seen your husband in the hospital, and ask them about the cocktail of drugs. More useful might be to get either a pharmacist or your husband's neurologist to look at the list of medication the hospital have him on. Don't assume, even if he's in the hospital where he's seen for his Parkinson's that anybody has necessarily made any connection and looked at any of the records.
I would suspect that the answer does lie somewhere in the medication combination or dosage. Do ensure that whoever you speak with you make it clear that your husband was fine until a few weeks ago and don't be fobbed off with comments about Parkinson's and/or age making this inevitable.
Good luck and do let us know how things go.
Best wishes
Radar
In relation to excessive sleeping my wife who is 71 was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2016 and from then on has slowly started to sleep more and more and now can sleep for between 14 - 16 hours at a time, her Parkinson’s doctor & our GP are at a loss and both say it is not the medication she is on, we are still trying to get to the bottom of this if anyone has any help or suggestions please let us know.
briarlin
Hello briarlin, my husband has PD. Diagnosed just over 6 years ago. He doesn’t sleep to the excess you describe, but every time he sits in the chair his head drops forward and he appears to be asleep but seems more like just dozing. He sleeps off and on throughout the night. I’ve also no idea why he’s constantly head down as soon as in a seated position. He’s also started drooling when in this position which is distressing for him and certainly so for me to observe. We actually have a telephone appointment with the PD nurse this afternoon so I will raise this with her. He takes 2 Sinemet (125/100) x 3 times daily at 7am, 12noon and 5pm and Ropinerole (8 mgs) once daily at 7am. I’ve read both these drugs can increase tiredness, but no doubt most of the drugs used in treatment of PD will have the same effect. Just hope we get some advice that at least addresses both the dozing off and more importantly the new unpleasant symptom of drooling. Hope you also get some answers. Good luck. Jean
hello Jean
Thanks for the reply it is interesting to note that sleepiness and tiredness is related to PD drugs. My wife is also on sinemet plus but 4 times daily 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm, with sinemet controlled release at night 11pm. also my wife suffers from her head drooping down to her chest, we have asked why and received no answers, so we have invested in a neck brace which she uses for short periods a few times a day, she also drools when she is sleeping, not nice but symptoms we have to live with.
hope some of this helps.
briarlin
Hi again, we had a phone appointment with the PD nurse yesterday and we mentioned this problem. Re the sleepiness it appears it can be in part due to the drugs but our PD nurse is going to arrange blood tests for him to rule out other causes like iron deficiency etc. He was found to be lacking in B12 when in hospital earlier this year for a few days with a UTI. They prescribed B12 tablets which to be honest haven’t really made much difference. The PD nurse said that in tablet form B12 isn’t very effective. There was talk of him having the B12 via injections but this never happened… Re the drooling, she’s prescribing atrophine eye drops to be used under the tongue. She explained that it’s not that people with PD have more saliva. It’s due to the fact that they don’t swallow enough hence it pools in the mouth especially when relaxed. He already has an appointment booked with SALT, (speech and language therapy) so hopefully they’ll be able to help too. Not sure he’d be keen on wearing a neck brace but it sounds a good idea when in the house! Best wishes Jean
thanks Jean
Sorry it has been so long getting back to you only Lin has not been too good lately although she is picking up now.
as to the excessive sleeping we have been experimenting with taking her morning meds at different times and mixtures,
we did used to take all the meds in one go in the morning with her first sinemet plus.
my wife also take C0-Codamol dispersable tablets 8/500
So this is our routine now and we believe the sleepiness has reduced considerably.
7am C0-Codamol and Sinemet Plus
9am Fludricortisone and Madopar
10.30am Amlodopine and Omeperazole
11am Co-Codamol and Sinemet Plus
12.30am Folic Acid and Pregabelin
I realise that some of these tablets are nothing to do with PD, however it was what my wife has to take, your husband may be on some of the same PD meds and possibly other meds for different things, so it is just a suggestion to maybe spread the morning meds.
Paul