Hello, I am a carer for my elderly mother who suffers from PD. She was officially diagnosed in December 2015 but I am sure that she was suffering from it 3 or so years earlier as she was showing the shaky symptoms but combined with a mini stroke, a spell in hospital, and moving to live with us, plus the fact that the Royal Mail put in her new address incorrectly into their computer and all her post went to another address, whose residents then returned to sender, a referral to see the PD consultant in 2012 was not followed up. It was only when she saw the consultant last December that we were told about it.
Mother has been fairly well up to now, she was able to potter about, getting up, dressed, washed, making cups of tea etc, and I was mainly a part time carer. However from November last year after she had a chest infection and a spell in hospital, 2 falls in December that her mobility has become quite bad. From Monday this week her mobility has worsened, she is not able to walk very well, even with a trolley. Her balance is bad, not able to get up out of bed, get dressed, washed or get on the toilet, feeding is also very difficult for her. The change has been a challenge for both of us as now I have to use a wheelchair to get her about to the bedroom/bathroom. Yesterday whilst trying to get her into her chair, everything suddenly stopped working and she and trolley fell, luckily into her chair and she was not hurt at all, but both of us were shaken.
I am not a trained nurse or carer, but have registered with our local carers association and booked onto a course for training in lifting and moving people with my son who helps me.
We are self employed so I am able to multitask between our business and Mother but how do other members cope with both. I am a member of our local PD branch who have been quite helpful and have coffee mornings with CAKE which does help!