Posted - 30 Aug 2011 15:32Report this post
I'm new to the forum. My husband (age 75) was diagnosed - or was he- a few weeks ago. As expats living in rural Turkey we can only communicate in Turkish on simple topics, but the neurologist seems to be saying he suspects Parkinson's - and has prescribed Madopar for 3 months. The idea seems to be that if my husbands hand tremor improves after taking the drug, this would strengthen the diagnosis. Reading other people's contributions to the forum and learning more about PD, I can now see that in addition to the tremor in his hands, I have in the past noticed other possible symptoms in my husband - problems with gait, tripping over nothing, needing time to respond to simple questions on occasion, excessive daytime sleepiness - but to the extent that I thought about these things at all, I assumed they were a normal part of becoming older.
We feel we have to think seriously now about selling up here as soon as possible and returning to UK. Our grasp of Turkish probably isn't enough to participate fully in decisions about medication and treatments. There is no support for us here - no PD nurses, specialist physiotherapists etc, no English-speaking self-help support groups. We have no medical insurance and have to pay for consultations, treatments and medication. Managing our house and garden is a full time job for both of us, and will only get harder to cope with as the disease develops.
All in all I feel we're vulnerable, alone and isolated, and we don't fully understand, and therefore I worry about, the neurologists diagnosis and treatment plan.
Any insights or advice on our situation would be welcome.
Hi.
Medication for the over 60s is free in the UK, but if you have to pay market prices out there it will cost you huge amounts for your average PwP's course of treatment. Typically dosages will get bigger over the coming years, so costs will too.
If you're looking to buy a UK property, prices are relatively low right now, but house-building is slowing, so they may go up soon.
Do you have family/roots back here? What part of the country?
Take care,
Ray.
Medication for the over 60s is free in the UK, but if you have to pay market prices out there it will cost you huge amounts for your average PwP's course of treatment. Typically dosages will get bigger over the coming years, so costs will too.
If you're looking to buy a UK property, prices are relatively low right now, but house-building is slowing, so they may go up soon.
Do you have family/roots back here? What part of the country?
Take care,
Ray.
Hello Ray of Sunshine, thanks for your reply. We have roots and family in southern England, but no ties to a particular area. We'd want to buy a house in a rural area but near a reasonable size town. I imagine anywhere in the south is rather expensive, so any other ideas for location would be welcome. The west Midlands region (Shrops, Staffs, Worcs, Herefordshire) has been suggested, and is said to be less expensive.
We need to sell our property here first though, which might take time as the housing market here is rather thin and much less well structured than in UK.
We need to sell our property here first though, which might take time as the housing market here is rather thin and much less well structured than in UK.