Parkinsons and other related health problems

Hi Everyone,

I am new to this site. I thought I would join to try and find out as much as I could about Parkinsons and also to speak to people who were in the same PD boat!

My dad was diagnosed with pd just under a year ago although we think he may have had it for at least 3/4 years.

My dad also had Crohns disease and is mostly reliant on a a TP (hickman) line which "feeds" him during the night. He has gone through 11 major operations which have left him with only a small part of his small bowel. Due to this he is unable to take tablets for his PD as they would not be absorbed by what bowl he has left. He is currently on patches at the moment. He started at 4mg and is now up to 10mg.

I have two questions I wonder if anyone can help or advise with:

1. What is the max MG these patches can go to - is it 16mg?
2. Does anyone know if it is a possiblity that the PD medication could be added to his "feed" so it would be given intravenously? He already gets all his vitamins and some other meds through this. This is made for him in a lab and he can do this at home.

Any thoughts are welcome.

Thanks

L :)
Hello L and a warm welcome to the forum.
You will find the forum full of people who have experience of most aspects of Parkinson's. I'm sorry that your first post wasn't spotted when you sent it.

I don't know the usual doseage for the patches but there are quite a few patch users in the forum. Alternatively you could try the helpline. They will be able to point you in the right direction for alternative ways of delivering the meds.

Good Luck

Elegant Fowl
hi
levadopa can be given intravenously but there are practical problems that have prevented this from being a commercial product (solubility, volume of solution etc).
i doubt it could just be added to his current set up.
the only reference i could find to the difficulties is: http://bit.ly/12ykZxK

the max dose for rotigotine is 6 mg per day in the usa, 16mg per day in europe. it has been tested up to 24mg with reasonable safety.
NICE guidelines - early stage pd 8mg, advanced pd 16mg
Hi everyone.

Thanks so much for your replies. Very much appreciated. His patches dose has been upped to 12mg (an 8mg patch and 2x 2mg patch) so we can see how it goes.

Will check out the other options as posted. Thanks all

L xx