My father is in the process of being diagnosed with Pd.
I'm really worried about him as he seems to "not believe" in pd in a away. Regards it a as mental illness and thins he'd be able to just ignore it or defeat it with his stubbornness.
Here's some background....
He had cancer about 5 years ago. Dispute many severe symptoms refused to visit dr. As a result when he finally forced to visit ,by my mother, he had advanced cancer which took a lot of treatment and he was very lucky to survive. He had major surgery which impacts on his day to day life. Had he visited earlier maybe he would have avoided it spreading as far as it did. He seems to regard being ill and visiting a dr as a sign of weakness.
Over the last year or so he has become very stiff in his limbs, his walking has slowed to a shuffle, he walks tilted backwards, he has trouble holding small things like cutlery or pens, he has an extremely painful foot, he can only walk for 20 mins max, his voice has become quiet and husky, he is slower in everything he does, he had trouble swallowing some times and chokes a lot, he has tremors, he has double or blurred vision at times.......but claims he is "fine"
My mother has forced him to visit the drs and they. Have referred him to a neurologist. This has caused a lot of arguments between them, he will not discuss his health with me or my siblings so I can't talk to him about it.
I'm really scared that when he goes to the specialist he will claim to be fine and he won't get a proper diagnosis or some drugs to help him. How do they go about diagnosing pd at the hospital? Will they do some physical tests?
Has anyone else relative just been to stubborn to have pd? How did they cope after dx? Any ideas on how I can help him...or my mother?
Orange zebra x
Hello Orange Zebra. It is quite common to be in denial about PD, or even any condition. Some people simply cannot talk about it or even admit that it is there at all. All we can do is offer love and support as much as we can and the person with PD is willing to accept.
Sometimes, if we try too hard to help, it causes stress and the symptoms can appear to get worse.
I don't have enough knowledge on PD to advise you but if you phoned our helpline they might be able to help, perhaps putting you in touch with a local PD group, Best wishes flo
Sometimes, if we try too hard to help, it causes stress and the symptoms can appear to get worse.
I don't have enough knowledge on PD to advise you but if you phoned our helpline they might be able to help, perhaps putting you in touch with a local PD group, Best wishes flo
Hello, my father also has parkinsons and he is also in denial about it, even though everyone knows about it, he has had Parkinsons for 10 years and he has still not got used to it, he also has a gambling addiction and he is denial about that too, even though both is obvious, but there is not any point in trying to say but you do have it to them the best we can do is support our loved ones and help them wherever is possible, I hope everything is ok for you we're all in this together
Hi orangezebra,
When I went through the diagnostic process a few years ago there was a mixture of things I had to do. They included writing a short sentence, a walk across the room, a traditional hammer on the knee reflex test, taking my socks off to check for any toe curling, some balance tests, some touchy feely tests with my eyes closed, some hot/cold to the touch tests, most of these tests would be difficult to "cheat" because you don't generally know what the best "answer" is. There were others too. Plus an MRI brain scan, blood tests, a 24hr urine collection test, a trip to the eye dept for a "deep" look into my eyes.
If my understanding is correct there is no one test to confirm PD. Some of these tests illustrate the prescence PD symptoms, others rule out the prescence of other conditions which may present Parkinson like symptoms.
Welcome to the world of PD, home of the moving target!
Regards Tractorman.
When I went through the diagnostic process a few years ago there was a mixture of things I had to do. They included writing a short sentence, a walk across the room, a traditional hammer on the knee reflex test, taking my socks off to check for any toe curling, some balance tests, some touchy feely tests with my eyes closed, some hot/cold to the touch tests, most of these tests would be difficult to "cheat" because you don't generally know what the best "answer" is. There were others too. Plus an MRI brain scan, blood tests, a 24hr urine collection test, a trip to the eye dept for a "deep" look into my eyes.
If my understanding is correct there is no one test to confirm PD. Some of these tests illustrate the prescence PD symptoms, others rule out the prescence of other conditions which may present Parkinson like symptoms.
Welcome to the world of PD, home of the moving target!
Regards Tractorman.