Falls, falls and more falls

About Parkinson's and health Symptoms
1

Hey, y’all. My 83 year old husband has Parkinson’s, he was diagnosed with it in 2013 when we lived in America. We’re now back in the UK.

Five years on and he’s not doing well. He’s had any number of falls and one of his most recent ones landed him in A & E where he had to have five stitches inserted into a head wound after he’d fallen backwards and the back of his head hit the ground.

We’ve bought a three wheeled walker for his use upstairs and a second three wheeled walker for use downstairs. He can no longer get up from chairs on his own so we’re having a riser recliner chair delivered very soon.

His fine motor control which was bad, then improved, has deteriorated again so I now have to dress him and undress him. I have to help him by lifting and straightening his legs when he lies on the couch for a nap and when he goes to bed.

He can now do very little around the house (we used to share the housework) and he now leaves the house only for medical appointments.

We have an upcoming visit from an O/T to see how the house can be made more safe for my husband.

My husband’s currently taking the following Parkinson’s medications:

0730, Co-careldopa, 25-100mg one and a half pills, Amantadine, 100mg
1300, Co-careldopa, 25-100mg one and a half pills, Amantadine, 100mg
1800, Co-careldopa, 25-100mg one and a half pills
2200, Caramet MR 25/100mg (modified release version of Co-careldopa, 25-100mg)once nightly

The Parkinson’s is adding greatly to his unhappiness - he’s handling a lot of health issues right now, including terminal cancer and a hiatal hernia.

We saw his neurologist just three weeks ago when he gave my husband a handy trick to help him “unfreeze” when walking but a lot of the issues my husband now has with unsteadiness on his feet weren’t apparent then.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks.y’all.

2

I personally would ask for a review of his medication in case it needs an adjustment to dosage or times taken. Does he have a PD nurse? I find mine a great help as she can change my meds if needed quickly (after consultation with my neurologist) via email or phone call.

3

Hi rhoagirl,

A warm welcome to the forum.

I agree with Nufcash’s suggestion, if you haven’t done so already, I recommend you get in touch with a Parkinson’s nurse for your husband. If you contact our helpline service on 0808 800 0303 and explain your husband’s health issues, they’ll arrange for a Parkinson’s nurse to contact you within 24 hours.

I hope you find the above information useful and do keep us posted on this.

Many thanks,
Reah

4

We are in a similar situation. But it’s my mother in law. She’s been diagnosed 18 years, but is now almost exactly in the same stage as your husband. She lives with us, as does my father in law who has stage 3 COPD and neither can look after themselves. Very recently she’s changed in her personality. More angry, more aggressive, more depressed. It seems to be affecting her brain much more recently and her sight is considerably worsening. It seems sometimes like she may be having mini strokes??? Anyone heard of anything like this happening?

5

rhoagirl,

I would ask my medics to look into:

  • do you get the most out of your meds by taking them at least a hour before or after eating, especially protein;

  • are you under-medicated? There’s a concept called levodopa equivalent dose which roughly equates the “apples and the oranges” in your regimen, I make yours 720mg per day (150x1+100x1+150x1+100x1+150x1+100x0.7) which is not high.

  • the timing of the meds, there’s 5.5h, 5h, 4h between doses. Is there a reason for this?

John

6

My husband has just been in hospital with retention and a urinary tract infection, prior to that he d had regular falls but a new parkinson nurse reveiwed his meds and he is now spreading out his simnet and added in three dispersible madopar and this seems to have made some difference to his movement. Before this I wouldn’t have thought to question whether his medicines should be tweaked. He s 72 and was diagnosed 20 years ago. caspar10