My dad has had this illness for the past 8 years and had symptoms for about 18 months before he was actually diagnosed, they first thought he was having mini strokes affecting the left side of his body. Hes just turned 60 last week
. when we were first told it was a terrible shock, I was 20 and my younger brother only 10 and it was a lot to take on (as im sure you all understand).for the past 7 years my dad has been marvelous, with a very few tweaking's of his meds. Im not very good with spelling (so forgive me) he takes sinemet and reQuip and some other meds but im not sure of the names.
earlier in the year he had a full knee replacement which he is still slowly recovering from but is more or less on the mend from. But sadly over the last 6 months hes gone down hill quiet a bit.stress seems to play a big part to making the pd worse so obviously having the knee op was very stressful for him and they wouldn't give him a general anesthesia , he had an epidural and was awake the whole time which put him under a great deal of stress, weather this has played a part in his getting worse or just that now hes had the knee replacement we can see how the pd is affecting him now.
he takes his meds 6 times a day but the time between him taking his meds are getting quicker because they dont last so long. He takes his first tablets at 4.15 am and he is really good till about 10 in the morning but then he gets a lot of freezes there after. he has terrible trouble sleeping and relaxing and because he gets stressed very easily the doctors have now prescribed him 2mg of diazepam which helps him lots.
so on tuesday we went to see the neurologist, he was brilliant, they aren't going to change any of his meds but in addition to what he takes hes now going to try apomorphine in a pen injection, the doctor explained as Pd progresses, some people develop an on-off effect like dad has when at one moment hes ok and the next he freezes up, and that this pen injection will give him boost his body needs through out the day. we are hoping this will help him to give him what his body needs has for the last year hes been more or less house bound, due to the fact hes to afraid to go out.
hes an inspiration to me and im very proud of him there have been some bad time but also many good times and throughout we have always maintained a positive attitude has my dad says (their is always someone worse off than me) so this is some of my story (sorry its a long one). And im glad ive come across this forum
thank you
