Sudden physical deline

My dad is 90 and may have had PD for some time now..you know how it doesn't announce it's arrival with a fanfare but tends to creep up. He has been doing very well. A determined soul who exercises everyday and maintains quite a pragmatic and positive attitude.

today I was saddened to hear that his mobility seemed to escape him. From last evening he suddenly became very weak, couldn't get up from the chairs and needed to use a frame to get any where. This morning he couldn't get out of bed or dress with out help.

Has anyone else had such a sudden and unexpected decline in function? Is if part of the ongoing decline or might it be a temporary blip?

any answers, opinions or experiences gratefully received

Jane

 

 

 

Jan

sorry you have not had a reply yet.  How the condition progresses is different for everyone.  Hope your Dad is comfortable.

Hello Jayne

So sorry to hear about your dad. Everyone's experience is different. My mum had PD un-diagnosed for many years, even though we asked for her repeatedly to be sent to a specialist. She herself is relatively young, 65 and now has advanced PD. The main reason for her to be finally referred to a PD specialist was the sudden loss of movement. She found it incredibly difficult to get out of bed and then froze on the settee, unable to move at all which was very distressing for her. She was then diagnosed with advanced PD but has been helped with the frozen episodes with PD meds however with side effects.

Not sure this is helpful at all as everyone is different however I do feel it is nice to hear from other people to know that you are not on your own.

Sharon 

Hello Jane,

Your story chimes with that of my mother.  She is almost 85 but not diagnosed until about 80.  She had been a fit lady, exercising every day.  In retrospect and having read up on this forum and elsewhere, the signs were there (frozen shoulder and loss of sense of taste and smell many years ago) but despite many trips to GP (and being told it was arthritis) there was a tardy diagnosis.

We knew it would be progressive and arranged for her to move in with us.  It took a few months to move house,make adaptations (thought we were preparing for the future), etc.  We were surprised at the speed of decline, including mobility.  Then one day she rang me and said she couldn't move out of her chair.  I lived about 90 miles away and drove straight down.  Couldn't think what to do so just had to move her into unfinished (but almost finished) rooms.  She did regain most of the mobility she still had before that but I have observed that there are sometimes step changes.

I think what you describe is quite typical - in the context of everyone being different, this seems to be in the area of something lots of people experience.  For my mother it was part of the decline.  Her situation has been complicated in that she has (shortly after moving in with me) been diagnosed as having Lewy Body and Vascular Dementia as well so it will be different for your dad.  Hopefully he will regain ground.  His medical practitioner might assist with alterations to medication.  I hope you have good local medical support - it is a bit crap round here with no PD nurse/specialist.

Kind regards,

Choogler