Hi, my Dad has had PD for around 12 years, he's now 72, has cope with it without to much trouble until 4 months ago. He started to have hallucinations, confusion and more falls than normal, spent two weeks in residential care, which he hated, just to ensure he was taking his meds at the right time, he had been missing some everyday for a few months. He lives alone in a first floor flat. Admitted to hospital just under two weeks ago as he couldn't bare his own weight, had lost over a stone in 10 weeks and was confused. Now they are saying he has dementia and may not be able to return home to live alone, they are going to access him over the next few days while they have him in hospital.
Trouble is he really got depressed in the residential home, spent all his time alone in his room, only coming out for meals, we now know his calcium levels had gone high due to extra vitamins prescribed by his GP a couple of months ago.
I am the only famiy member close by so it has been a lot of stress and running around these last few months, he seems to have gone downhill so fast, now I can see the changes happening on a daily basis, today he snapped at me, the first time ever and I got a view of whats to come.
Some help or advice would be much appreciated.
Hi Ms T. I dont know if i can give much advise on care in the Uk as i live in Southern Ireland. I just find this website more informative than the Irish one. I have recently took over the care of my father who has PD for nearly 20 years. He is 65. My mother was his carer and they lived in their country home since i was born. However, my mum passed away in July this year and, as i was the closest to home, i had to take over my dads care. I moved back home, however i only lived about 25miles away anyway, and i thought it was going to be easy. How wrong i was! He seems to have similar symptoms as your dad, the hallucinations and confusion. he also has a quick temper and doesnt hold back if he doesnt get his way. I am always at the receiving end as i am the main carer. Thankfully my sister helps but she has a very young family and my other brothers and sisters come home for a week each, each month to give me a break. This sounds selfish, but sometimes even that isnt enough. My dad would never remember to take his meds, he doesnt even know which ones to take! My mum had him spoilt all their married life and unfortunatley that has come back to bite us all in the a**. It is extremely important that he gets his meds on time and we have found that if he sleeps after getting his afternoon meds he is in much better form the rest of the day. Also, going out walking seems to keep his spirits and mobiltiy up in the evening also. We give him movical every 2nd day incase he is constipated which will add to confusion. We dont give to much movicol as we dont want him having to run to the toilet and have an accident. For dads hallucinations we are giving him a patch called Exelon which saw great improvements at first but they are slowing creeping back. This may be because dad is more comfortable talking about them or because i am here more often than i was but i would never take him off that patch now as he is a million times better than he was before. We have had to reduce his meds too as Stalevo and Requip seemed to increase the hallucinations at higher doses - this may be something to look into. Is there anyway your dad could come out of the home for a week to be with family? This might help, but then again, changing surroundings doesnt agree with my father so might not for yours, but maybe this is why he seems out of sorts now as it has been a big change for him. Sorry for the long reply, i hope it helps in any way.
Hello Mrs T and Emz.
Reading your posts ,I felt so sad so helpless, if only the world leaders would spend a tiny fraction of the Trillions and Trillions they spend on weapons, on
Parkinsons Alzeimers and Dementia we would achieve results that would make such a huge difference to the lives of good people like yourselves. I lost my dad last February , he was a Miner for 41 yrs and his death which brought my father Blessed relief was caused by Lung damage though he did have signs of PD and Dementia ,the last two years of Dads life were Horrific , his frequent bouts of
confusion when he would plead to come home were heartbreaking and for me
Terrifying as I was diagnosed in 99 with PD It is crippling me quite badly now
I spend much of my day 95% shut down so I do feel your pain.
May the coming New Year bring the miracles we yearn
fedexlike (fed)
Reading your posts ,I felt so sad so helpless, if only the world leaders would spend a tiny fraction of the Trillions and Trillions they spend on weapons, on
Parkinsons Alzeimers and Dementia we would achieve results that would make such a huge difference to the lives of good people like yourselves. I lost my dad last February , he was a Miner for 41 yrs and his death which brought my father Blessed relief was caused by Lung damage though he did have signs of PD and Dementia ,the last two years of Dads life were Horrific , his frequent bouts of
confusion when he would plead to come home were heartbreaking and for me
Terrifying as I was diagnosed in 99 with PD It is crippling me quite badly now
I spend much of my day 95% shut down so I do feel your pain.
May the coming New Year bring the miracles we yearn
fedexlike (fed)