My wife, 80, has had what I think are classic early Parkinsons symptoms for some time (tremors & shaking, slowness of movement, muscle stiffness, depression & anxiety, balance problems, loss of sense of smell, problems sleeping, memory problems).
She was in relatively good health before she had a reaction to a Covid booster 5 years ago. She’s on blood thinners for pulmonary embolisms and a host of medicines for the above symptoms. She can do little more than sit around and wander around the house. Visit after visit to A&E has produced nothing of merit and a 2 week hospital stay found only high blood pressure that lowers on getting up. Her immune system has possibly been corrupted by the vaccine; some medics say that is a distinct possibility but it’s conjecture.
We hadn’t thought of Parkinsons until her GP mentioned it today. He’s asked for a hospital assessment so I came here for more info on the disease in order to be better prepared.
Welcome to the forum, and thanks for reaching out. We hope you find this to be a helpful and welcoming environment, and we’re sure that the community will be along soon to offer support and advice.
In the meantime, we hope you’re doing OK. It sounds like you’ve been going through a tough time, and we hope you get some answers soon. We have lots of information on our website that can provide insight and guidance around symptoms as well as management of these which can help guide conversations with medical professionals. You can read more about this on our website here: Health professionals and Parkinson's | Parkinson's UK
We also have a helpline where we can put you in touch with one of our Parkinson’s nurses who can offer their advice and guidance as you navigate through this process. It’s free to call and totally confidential: 0808 800 0303
Hello Annie46 and welcome to the forum.
Your reason for coming to the forum is perfectly sensible and easily understood. The hard p.art is in knowing how to responding a way that may help you at all. After giving it a bit of thought, I decided the best thing to do is make a few general points which I will keep brief, a sort of Parkinson’s Headlines if you like to get you started - you can then come. back on any point later if you wish. So in no particular ordrer
There is no definitive test for Parkinson’s so in some cases it can take some time to get a formal diagnosis
There is no cure
Management of symptoms is. maiinly by medication which is very good but it can take time to get it right..
There are some 40+ symptoms which can impact on pretty much anything physically, mentally, emotionally and all stops in between Many consider it an individual condition since people can have similar symptoms and be affected very differently
The early.dsys can be difficult while everything gets sorted out and you will probably experience a whole range of emotions. That’s perfectly normal
Things do eventually settle down and most have many years with a good quality of life. I am almost 17 years post diagnosis and doing ok
Alongside medication exrcise is important, keep moving as much as you can
Many worry about their futures but there is only so much you can do until Parkinson’s gives you an indicator of how things may be heading. So don’t try to sort it all out now. Take baby steps, get used to it all and find out things as you need to know it
It can be difficult for family, friends and anyone else to watch the person apparently struggle. Try to resist taking over, the person will usually get there in the end - and if you take everything away you risk making their life worthless
It is not an easy condition to live with but it can be done and there are worse things unless you choose to see it as the only way is down
There is a tendency to blame everything on Parkinson’ss but it is important to remember it doesn’t stop the ageing process.
The help desk will be able to tell you which support group is closest to you should you want to do so and they are an excellent resource for all sorts of things as is the main Parkinson’s UK websiteThere are loads of other things I could say but I think that will be enough for now and hope you find something useful in what I have written which I freely admit has been totally off the top of my head so I hope at least most of it makes some sort of sense to you
The forum is open 24/7 if you need for any reason at all.
Take care
Tot
