I had my 6 monthly meeting with my Parkinson’s Nurse today. It was due to take place a month ago but I caught Covid so it was rearranged for today. I had sent him an email to ask for a referral to the Benenden Hospital where I get to see a Neurologist quicker than the normal NHS route. I think he forgot, he says he will chase it up. He told me that after a 1 week holiday he has over 100 emails to deal with & some do get missed.
At today’s meeting I told him that my walking was worse & my sleeping was worse & that I move violently in my sleep & often hurt my fingers, knees or back during my sleep. It was good that he got to see me at my worst today following a bad nights sleep last night. I struggled to get up from my chair & having done so it was difficult to move my feet. But I managed eventually.
Following a chat with the Hospital’s neurological pharmacist I had stopped taking Bisoprolol [beta blocker] for Afib & put on Digoxin as the Bisoprolol was likely to be the cause of my REM sleep problems. But I was told today that these problems are more likely to be caused by the co-careldopa [Sinemet] Parkinson’s medication
I take.
The Parkinson’s nurse also told me that my walking problems are more likely to be neuropathy based than Parkinson’s.
So he prescribed 3 new pills for me to take. One to combat the REM sleep. One to help me to get to sleep & one to boost the effects of the Sinemet I take.
He told me that I will continually need to increase the amount of Parkinson’s medication I take to gain the same effect.
I also had a chat with the hospital’s neurological physiotherapist & she has made an appointment for me in 6 weeks time to see if the new medication helps me when
I start taking it.
There seems real confusion about what medication I should be taking & what is causing the symptoms I have & whether my troubling symptoms are down to the medication I take. A never ending circle.
Best wishes
Steve2